Santa Ana winds blew several large trees over in Irvine and Anaheim. Downed power lines affected 40,000 customers in Los Alamitos, Westminister, Newport Beach, La Habra, Fountain valley, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Orange, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Tustin, and Buena Park.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS SGX wrote it up.
Santa Ana winds blew several large trees over in Irvine and Anaheim. Downed power lines affected 40,000 customers in Los Alamitos, Westminister, Newport Beach, La Habra, Fountain valley, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Orange, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Tustin, and Buena Park. Strong wind gusts also forced the closure of several amusement/theme park rides at Disney's California Adventure and Knotts Berry Farm. Blowing dust restricted visibility near the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 55.
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 May 3, 1:15 AM PST, 6 hours 15 minutes earlier.
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
215 AM PDT THU MAY 03 2001
...SYNOPSIS...
DEVELOPING SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE OVER NORTHERN NEVADA WILL ALLOW
OFFSHORE FLOW TO DEVELOP THIS MORNING. GUSTY NORTH WINDS WILL OCCUR
BELOW SOME PASSES AND CANYONS...MAINLY NORTH OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.
MOST OF THE COASTAL LOW CLOUDS WILL CLEAR OUT TODAY TO BRING WARMER
WEATHER THERE. A RETURN TO ONSHORE FLOW AND WEST FLOW ALOFT WILL
BRING SEASONABLE TEMPERATURES WITH AREAS OF COASTAL LOW CLOUDS AND
FOG BY THE WEEKEND.
...DISCUSSION...
100 KT NORTHERLY JET MAX NOW OVER CENTRAL SIERRA LOSES SPEED QUICKLY
AND SLIDES EAST WITH THE PROGRESSIVE 555 UPPER LOW MOVING THROUGH
UTAH THIS MORNING. THUS THE PERIOD OF N-NE WIND FOR THE NORTHERN
MTS AND PASSES LOOKS RATHER BRIEF. ADDITIONALLY...THE INITIAL PATCH
OF -6 VVEL AND SUBSIDENCE IS WELL EAST OF OUR AREA...AND THE SECOND
PATCH FOR THIS PM IS ACTUALLY OUT OVER THE BIGHT...WHICH WILL AID
THE RETURN OF ONSHORE FLOW. THUS...INCLINED TO DROP THE WIND ADV
FOR TODAY...BUT LEAVE IN GUSTY WINDS NEAR CAJON PASS. NEW ETA-10
ALSO SUPPORTS BRIEF AND WEAKER OFFSHORE FLOW EVENT.
MARINE LAYER CLOUDS ARE THINNING AS THE DRY NE FLOW AT 850 MB SETS
IN THIS EARLY MORNING. LOW CLOUDS WILL CLEAR OUT OF SAN COUNTY
LAST...AND BY 9 AM...ALL OF THE CWA SHOULD BE CLEAR AND WARMER...
WITH MID 70S TO LOWER 80S POSSIBLE INLAND COASTAL VALLEYS. 10 MB
OFFSHORE FLOW THIS MORNING...THEN ABOUT HALF THAT FOR FRI MORNING.
SO WARM AND DRY THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.
578 NW FLOW ALOFT ON THE WEEKEND. OFFSHORE TRENDS IN THE MORNINGS
AND MODERATE ONSHORE FLOW PMS...SO EXPECT COASTAL LOW CLOUDS...
BUT NOT TOO FAR INLAND. SO FAIR AND WARM WITH NEAR NORMAL TEMPS.
590 UPPER HIGH SETTLES OVER NEVADA MUCH OF NEXT WEEK...GIVING SCALIF
MOSTLY 583 EASTERLY FLOW FOR A GRADUAL WARMING TREND THROUGH THE
WEEK...WITH MID 80S LIKELY BY MID-WEEK INLAND VALLEYS. THIS PATTERN
COULD BRING SOME MONSOON-TYPE ALTOCU CLOUDS TO THE SOUTHERN DESERTS
BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK.
NOT MUCH NW SWELL MAKING INTO THE INNER WATERS AND SAN DIEGO COASTS
SO MWS HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO EXPIRE.
SAN 000
.SAN...NONE.
MACKECHNIEThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in California, May 2001
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: 5243115, 5243116.