Wildfire and High Wind in California, January 3 to 8, 2001

Name: Wildfire and High Wind in California, January 3 to 8, 2001
Start: 2001-01-03T03:15
End: 2001-01-08T17:00
Location: California

January 3 to 8, 2001 · NWS SGX · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 2
Property damage: $10 million
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

Dry Santa winds caused a discarded cigarette butt in the median of Interstate 8 to grow into a 10,353 acre brush fire. Resources used to fight the fire cost over $8 million and involved 2000 fire fighters, nine helicopters, and nine air tankers. Property damaged or destroyed in the fire consisted of 15 single family homes, 65 outbuildings, 15 trailers, and 164 motor vehicles. Several livestock were burned and later euthanasized.

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 Jan 3, 2:00 AM PST, 1 hour 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 3, 2:00 AM PST, 1 hour 15 minutes before

EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
200 AM PST WED JAN 3 2001

                             ...SYNOPSIS...
NORTHEAST WINDS ALOFT AND HIGH PRESSURE OVER UTAH WILL CAUSE LOCAL
STRONG GUSTY WINDS THROUGH AND BELOW CANYONS AND PASSES THROUGH
THURSDAY MORNING...DECREASING BY NOON THURSDAY. WARM DAYS WILL
CONTINUE WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS. SLIGHTLY COOLER WEATHER IS EXPECTED
FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND AS THE WEAK ONSHORE FLOW RETURNS. A LOW
PRESSURE TROUGH WILL DEVELOP NEAR THE WEST COAST EARLY NEXT WEEK TO
BRING INCREASING CLOUDS AND FURTHER COOLING.

                            ...DISCUSSION...
STRONG WINDS QUITE LOCALIZED THIS EARLY MORNING AS NOCTURNAL INVERSION
STRENGTHENS AND WINDS DRAGGED DOWNWIND OF ONLY THE ROUGHEST TERRAIN.
ONTARIO STILL BLOWING AT 30 MPH...FREMONT STILL NEAR 60 MPH. SAN-TPH
GRADIENTS HAVE SLACKENED SLIGHTLY FROM 15 MB TUE TO ABOUT 12 MB NOW...
BUT ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE AGAIN THIS MORNING. SO CURRENT NPW LOOKS
GOOD FOR ALL AREAS THROUGH AT LEAST NOON.

WEATHER OR NOT TO EXTEND IT...UPPER NE WINDS STILL 60 KTS THIS PM AND
EVE BUT DVV DECREASES FROM -4 TUE TO -2 TODAY. 500 MB FLOW 582 E.
1000-850 MB THICKNESS DECREASES FROM 1384 TUE PM TO 1368 THIS PM...SO
STILL SOME CAA TO HELP KATABATIC FLOW. SO INCLINED TO EXTEND THE HWW
AND WADS TILL THIS EVE. THEN JUST KEEP HWW FOR CAJON AND SNA MTS THRU
900 AM THU. UPPER SUPPORT AND PGRADS WIPE OUT RAPIDLY LATE THU AM AS
UPPER FLOW FROM SUBTROPICAL LOW KICKS IN.

THE SUBTROPICAL LOW WILL BE TRICKY. IT IS MAINLY A RESULT OF THE
REMNANT VORTICITY OF OUR CURRENT UPPER LEVEL POS TILT TROF INTERACTING
WITH THE 80KT MOIST SUBTROPICAL JET OVER BAJA. HARD TO IMAGINE THE
UPPER LOW INTENSIFYING THE WAY THE AVN HAS IT...WITH 1/4 TO 1/2 INCH
OF RAIN MOVING INTO THE AREA FROM THE SOUTH ON FRIDAY. BELIEVE THE
SUBTROPICAL JET DYNAMICS WILL BE FARTHER SOUTH THAN MODELS PROG...
AND WILL LEAVE WEEKEND FORECAST AS VARIABLY CLOUDY FOR NOW. BUT LOW
WILL BE WATCHED CLOSELY...AS COPIOUS MIDLEVEL MOISTURE COULD KICK OFF
SOME SHWRS OR ISOLD TSTRMS OVER THE STHRN MTS FRI PM.

AFTER THAT...MODELS CONSISTENT WITH S/W COMING THRU MON...BUT HAVE IT
LITTLE WEAKER AND FASTER...SO WILL LEAVE MON/TUE FORECAST ALONE ALSO.

LONGER RANGE MODELS STILL INDICATE A COOL SHOWERY W-NW 546 TO 564 FLOW
PATTERN WITH A SERIES OF S/WS FOR MUCH OF NEXT WEEK...FOLLOWED BY
ANOTHER SANTA ANA FOR THE 14/15 WEEKEND.

LOOKS LIKE HEMISPHERIC FLOW WILL BE MAKING SOME ADJUSTMENTS OVER THE
NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS. THE 10-DAY MRF HAS THE TROPICAL CENTRAL PACIFIC
EXPLODING WITH PRECIP. EXTRA LATENT HEAT COULD REV UP THE SBTRPCL JET
AND SET UP A SPLIT FLOW PATTERN AFTER MID JAN...WHICH COULD PLACE
SCALIF IN A PINEAPPLE EXPRESS PATTERN OUT OF HAWAII THEN. PURE
SPECULATION AT THIS POINT...BUT HAVE NOTICED IN THE PAST YEARS THAT
A DRY WINTER DURING "LA NUETRA" CONDITIONS DOES GET PUNCTUATED BY ONE
OR TWO 1-WEEK WET PERIODS...SO MAYBE AGAIN THIS YEAR.

SAN 000

.SAN...HIGH WIND WARNINGS AND WIND ADVISORIES...SEE LAXNPWSAN.

MACKECHNIE

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 high wind, 1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

High Wind, San Diego T X W

When: January 3, 3:15 AM PST to 9:00 AM PST
Where: San Diego T X W forecast zone
Measured: 56 kt (64 mph)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 33.028, -116.770 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Wildfire, San Diego

When: January 3, 4:17 AM PST to January 8, 5:00 PM PST
Where: San Diego County, 3 mi E of Alpine
Injuries: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $10 million
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 33.028, -116.770 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

High Wind: Sustained non-thunderstorm winds of 40 mph or more for an hour, or gusts of 58 mph or more.
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

Every storm in California in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in California, January 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: 5229042, 5229043.