DesertWeather.com Blog

On this day in…
2006: Offshore winds blew to 40 mph in the Banning Pass. The Esperanza Fire was started by an arsonist. It eventually burned 40,200 acres from Cabazon to San Jacinto. It destroyed 34 homes and killed 5 firefighters.
2003: Santa Ana winds started on 10.25 and ended on 10.27. Gusts of 56 mph were measured at Descanso, 46 mph in Anza, 45 mph in Ontario, 43 mph at Fremont Canyon, 41 mph in Beaumont and 40 mph in Campo. Unprecedented
wildfires, including the Cedar, Paradise and Otay Fires consumed hundreds of thousands of acres, killed over 20 people and caused over one billion dollars in damage. The Cedar Fire itself consumed more than 280,000 acres,
making it the largest wildfire in California history, and killed 16. This is the also the second costliest fire in U.S.
History (the costliest fire was the Oakland Fire of 1991).
2002: A funnel cloud was observed five miles northeast of Borrego Springs

On this day in…
2004: A large winter season storm pummeled Southern California. Not just daily, but monthly record rainfall was received in only one day across the region. The same happened again on 10.27. The monthly record rainfall was exceeded in only six hours in many locations of Orange County on this day. Totals for last two weeks of October were four to eight inches in lower elevations, and up to 14 inches at Lake Arrowhead. A storm wind of 39 mph was measured at Lindbergh Field from the south, the strongest October wind on record. 1.95 inches of rain fell in Riverside and 3.15 inches fell in Santa Ana, the greatest daily amounts on record for October. 3.5 inches of snow fell in Idyllwild, the greatest daily amount on record for October. Widespread flooding occurred. A bridge washed out near Wrightwood. One was killed in floodwaters near Lytle Creek. Many mountain roads were impassable with mud and rockslides. Railroad tracks washed out, derailing a train. The Santa Ana River flooded, putting horses neck-deep in flood waters in Norco and a rescue was made at a Chino golf course. Several funnel clouds were reported offshore from San Clemente.

On this day in…
1991: It was 111° in Palm Springs, the latest date in the season to record 110° or higher.

For 7 years now DesertWeather.com has grown into a site that provides a wealth of information to the community. The expense of running DesertWeather, and maintaining and expanding it, comes with costs! Those costs mostly came from my own pocket. As with most, times are a little tougher for me and I currently don’t have the funds available to replace the weather server that failed on October 18th with a machine that is capable of supplying DesertWeather.com with the full feature set it had before the failure!

If you can help please consider making a donation via Paypal with the form below. No amount is too little, any helps! Your donation will be solely used to purchase an up to date server that will replace the failing one and take DesertWeather.com into the years to come.

Thank you,
John Slama
DesertWeather.com founder