California, 2001

Wildfire in California, August 7, 2001

August 7, 2001 · NWS SGX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

A wild fire in a steep canyon near the main toll plaza on the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road, Highway 73, was quickly contained by 75 firefighters, 3 helicopters, 2 airtankers, and the presence of high humidity and lack of strong canyon winds.

Where it happened

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The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS SGX wrote it up.

A wild fire in a steep canyon near the main toll plaza on the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road, Highway 73, was quickly contained by 75 firefighters, 3 helicopters, 2 airtankers, and the presence of high humidity and lack of strong canyon winds.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS San Diego, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 7, 1:15 PM PST, 1 hour 3 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 7, 1:15 PM PST, 1 hour 3 minutes before
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
215 PM PDT TUE AUG 7 2001

                             ...SYNOPSIS...
HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE WESTERN STATES WILL GRADUALLY WEAKEN THROUGH
THURSDAY. IT WILL STILL BE HOT...BUT NOT QUITE AS HOT AS TODAY. WEAK
MONSOONAL FLOW WILL CONTINUE THE POSSIBILITY OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER
THE MOUNTAINS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

                            ...DISCUSSION...
THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPED OVER THE MTNS THIS AFTERNOON...AND WERE MOST
WIDESPREAD OVER THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY MTNS WHERE DEWPOINTS WERE IN
THE MID TO UPPER 50S. FARTHER NORTH IN THE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
MTNS THE DEWPOINTS WERE NOT AS HIGH AND CONVECTION WAS MUCH WEAKER
AND LESS WIDESPREAD.

THE DOMINATE WEATHER FEATURE TODAY HAS BEEN THE 600 DM HIGH OVER
WYOMING AND THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST. TEMPERATURES SOARED ABOVE 110 IN
THE EASTERN DESERTS...OVER 100 IN THE INLAND EMPIRE...AND IN THE 90S
IN THE MOUNTAINS.  THIS HIGH WILL WEAKEN SLIGHTLY THROUGH THE REST
OF THE WEEK AND TEMPERATURES SHOULD BE A DEGREE OF TWO COOLER EACH
DAY THROUGH THURSDAY.

THE FORECAST PROBLEM TODAY IS DETERMINING THE AMOUNT OF AVAILABLE
MONSOON MOISTURE IN THE MTNS THIS WEEK. ALTHOUGH THE MOISTURE WILL
DIMINISH IN THE DRIER SSW FLOW TOMORROW...THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO
GENERATE ISOLATED/SCATTERED CONVECTION WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. FOR
THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...THEN MODELS INDICATE THE FLOW ALOFT DOES
NOT TURN STRONGLY SOUTHWEST. HOWEVER...THE FLOW IS NOT ALL THAT
STRONGLY SE EITHER...BUT THE MODELS ARE HINTING AT ENOUGH AVAILABLE
MOISTURE RETURNING FOR THE END OF THE WEEK AND INTO THE WEEKEND FOR
POSSIBLE CONVECTION TO DEVELOP EACH AFTERNOON. FOR NOW WILL KEEP THE
EXTENDED DRY BUT IF FUTURE MODEL RUNS BEGIN TO TREND TOWARD A MOIST
SE FLOW THIS WOULD INCREASE OUR CHANCES FOR AFTERNOON MOUNTAIN
THUNDERSTORMS THIS WEEKEND.

.SAN...NONE.

MOEDE

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

Wildfire, Orange

When
August 7, 2:18 PM PST to 4:00 PM PST
Where
Orange County, 5 mi N of Laguna Beach
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
33.677, -117.776 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Wildfire
A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in California in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in California, August 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5263067.