An arson caused fire consumed 500 acres of rugged brush covered hills, a garage, a utility trailer, and two 25 gallon water storage tanks before being brought under control. About 150 people from Calimesa and Cherry Valley evacuated.
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.
An arson caused fire consumed 500 acres of rugged brush covered hills, a garage, a utility trailer, and two 25 gallon water storage tanks before being brought under control. About 150 people from Calimesa and Cherry Valley evacuated. Homes in Yucaipa were also threatened. Over 1,300 fire fighters fought the blaze over four days in rough terrain. Of the ten injuries, eight were due to heat exhaustion.
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 11, 2:30 AM PST, 10 hours 15 minutes earlier.
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 330 AM PDT SUN AUG 11 2002 .SYNOPSIS...STRONG HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT WILL CONTINUE HOT DAYS INLAND OF THIS WEEK...THROUGH WITH GRADUAL COOLING THE LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK. A SHALLOW MARINE LAYER AND WEAK ONSHORE FLOW WILL CONTINUE NIGHT AND MORNING COASTAL LOW CLOUDS AND FOG...LINGERING NEAR THE BEACHES INTO THE AFTERNOONS...OTHERWISE...FAIR. .DISCUSSION...SAT EVENING ACARS SOUNDINGS SHOWED AN IMPRESSIVELY STRONG MARINE INVERSION WITH THE BASE A LTL ABV 1000 FEET. WARMEST TEMPERATURES IN THE INVERSION LYR WERE IN THE 2500 TO 3500 FT LYR. THESE AREAS ON THE CSTL SLOPES SHOULD ONCE AGAIN SEE HIGH TEMPERATURES TODAY IN THE 105 TO 110 RANGE. TEMPERATURES IN A FEW AREAS IN THE MTNS...DESERTS...AND INLAND VLYS MAY APPROACH RECORD LVLS THIS AFTERNOON. THE UPR RDG WL WKN A LTL DURG THE WEEK WITH A GRADUAL SLOW COOLING TREND...MAINLY TUE THRU FRI. THROUGHOUT THE NEXT 7 DAYS...THE SUBTROPICAL RDG AXIS REMAINS OVR OR TO THE SOUTH OF SW CA. THIS SHOULD KP ANY MONSOON MSTR OF SIGNIFICANCE TO THE S. MONSOON MSTR PASSING BY JUST TO THE S OF SRN CA TODAY COULD BRING A FEW CLOUDS TO THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY MTNS THIS AFTERNOON. THE HEIGHT AND STRENGTH OF THE MARINE INVERSION IS FAVORABLE FOR DENSE FOG IN THE MESAS AND LWR CSTL VLYS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY AND PORTIONS OF THE ORANGE COUNTY CSTL PLAIN NR HIGHER TERRAIN. LOW CLOUDS WL ALSO BE SLOW TO CLR AT SOME BEACHES THIS AFTERNOON AND AGAIN MON SAN...HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR HEAT TODAY...SEE LAXSPSSGX. MARTIN
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in California, August 2002
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: 5309894.