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The discovery of a hurricane that directly impacted San Diego, California, nearly 150 yr ago has implications for residents and risk managers in their planning for extreme events for the region.
Tropical cyclones forming in the eastern North Pacific Ocean are occasional visitors to the southwestern United States. By the time these systems travel far enough to the north to bring their associated moisture to the United States, the tropical cyclones have normally diminished below tropical storm strength over Mexico or over the colder waters of the California Current that flows southward along the California coast. Rain, sometimes locally excessive, is frequently observed in many areas of the southwestern United States when tropical cyclone remnants enter the region (Blake 1935; Smith 1986).
Four tropical cyclones have managed to bring tropical storm-force winds to the southwestern United States during the twentieth century: a tropical storm on 25 September 1939 in California, Hurricane Joanne on 6 October 1972 in Arizona, Hurricane Kathleen on 10 September 1976 in California and Arizona, and Hurricane Nora in September 1997 in Arizona. Only the 1939 tropical storm made a direct landfall in coastal California (Smith 1986), because the other three systems entered the United States after first making landfall in Mexico.
The 1939 tropical storm caused $2 million in property damage in California, mostly to shipping, shore structures, power and communication lines, and crops. Ships in coastal waters of southern California reported southeast winds between 34 and 47 kt (Hurd 1939). However, no tropical cyclones are recorded or estimated to have made landfall in the southwestern United States as a hurricane, with maximum 1-min surface (10 m) winds of at least 64 kt. A list of the documented tropical cyclone remnants to affect the southwestern United States can be found in Smith (1986).
Extreme rain events in the southwestern United States and heavy rains are the most frequent effect of tropical cyclones in the region. High winds and coastal storm-surge and wave action are much less frequent. Smith (1986) states: "The occurrence of sustained winds of even hurricane intensity, 65 kn[ots], is extremely unlikely anywhere in the Southwest."
Recently, the first author discovered the existence of a hurricane at San Diego, California, on 2 October 1858 in newspaper accounts from...