1 wildfire, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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 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 Los Angeles, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 17, 2:31 AM PST, 3 hours 29 minutes earlier.
SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA 300 AM PDT SAT AUG 17 2002 LOW CLDS HAVE PUSHED INTO ALL CSTL ZONES AND MOST VLY ZONES EARLY THIS MORNING. MARINE LYR HAS DEEPENED A BIT MORE...NOW BETWEEN 1600 AND 2000 FT DEEP...AND LOW CLDS MAY SURGE INTO THE SANTA CLARITA VLY THIS MORNING. WITH THE DEPEER MARINE LAYER...THERE SHOULD BE LESS IN THE WAY OF ANY DENSE FOG THIS MORNING AND THAT WL BE CONFINED MAINLY TO THE VLYS. PRES GRADS HAVE CHANGED LTL DURG THE PAST 24 HRS. XPCT CLRG TODAY TO BE SIMILAR TO FRI...DURG THE LATE MORNING IN THE VLYS...AND DURG THE EARLY AFTERNOON ACRS THE CSTL PLAIN. AS FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS...LOW CLDS MAY BE QUITE STUBBORN AT SOME BEACH LOCATIONS TODAY. XPCT MAX TEMPS TO BE WITHIN A COUPLE OF DEGS OF THOSE REACHED ON FRI...KEEPING THE DSRTS RATHER HOT. UPR HIGH OFF THE CST WL BEGIN TO WKN SUN WHICH SHOULD ALLOW FOR A FEW DEGS OF COOLING IN THE MTNS AND DSRTS. W OF THE MTNS...WITH LTL CHANGE IN THE ONSHR GRADS OR MARINE LYR DEPTH XPCTD...MAX TEMPS SHOULD CHANGE LTL ON SUNDAY. UPR TROUGH WL MOVE INTO THE PAC NW AND NRN CA ON MON... THEN DEEPEN ALG THE W CST MON NIGHT AND TUE. FALLING HGTS AND COOLING AT 850 MB SHOULD BRING MORE SIGNIFICANT COOLING TO THE MTNS AND DSRTS MON AND TUE...WHILE A FAIRLY DEEP MARINE LYR KEEPS TEMPS BELOW NORMAL W OF THE MTNS. AS THE UPR TROUGH BEGINS TO DEPART...ANOTHER S/WV IS PROGGED TO DROP SWD ON IN ITS WRN SIDE...ALLOWING ANOTHER TROUGH TO FORM OFF THE CNTRL CA CST. THIS SHOULD KEEP RATHER COOL CONDITIONS ACRS THE AREA THRU AT LEAST WED. MODELS DIVERGE SOMEWHAT AFTER WED...BUT FOR THE MOST PART...ALL INDICATE A WK UPR LOW IN THE VICINITY OF THE FCST AREA...BUT AT THE SAME TIME SHOW SLOWLY RISING HGTS. THEREFORE...WL CONT TO INDICATE SOME GRADUAL WARMING AT THE END OF THE WEEK. LAX 000. BRUNO. .LOX...NONE.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
A wildfire burned 715 acres of forest in San Luis Obispo County, about 12 miles east of Paso Robles. The fire cost about $290,000 to fight, but resulted in no deaths or injuries.
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: 5314663.