Name: Wildfire in California, July 4 to 5, 2002
Start: 2002-07-04T22:00
End: 2002-07-05T17:00
Location: California

Where it happened

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.

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: 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 HNX wrote it up.

Powerhouse wildfire...details unknown at time of filing 7/5/02.

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 Hanford, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 4, 8:00 PM PST, 2 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 8:00 PM PST, 2 hours before

INTERIOR CENTRAL CALIFORNIA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA
900 PM PDT THU JUL 4 2002

ONSHORE FLOW CONTINUES TO EXERT AN INLAND INFLUENCE THIS EVENING
INTO SJV LLVLS. SFO-SAC NEAR 4 MB AND SNS-FAT 6.6 MB...AROUND THE
SAME LEVELS AS YESTERDAY WITH THE MARINE LAYER DEPTH FAIRLY STABLE
NEAR 1700 FEET. CURRENT TEMPERATURES ALSO VERY CLOSE TO PERSISTENCE.
THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE FROM WED EVE IS THE SWATH OF HI LEVEL
SUBTROPICAL CIRRUS MSTR FLOWING INTO THE REGION FROM THE SW. THIS
CIRRUS PROMISES TO BE FAIRLY OPAQUE AS IT MOVES OVERHEAD TONIGHT...
SO MIN TEMPS SHOULD TREND SLIGHTLY UPWARD.

PROGS SHOW THIS TRAJECTORY OF CIRRUS MOISTURE PERSISTING OVER THE
REGION THRU FRI AND SAT...WITH VARYING AMOUTS OF HI CLOUDS. EXPECT
TEMPERATURES TO CONTINUE NEAR PERSISTENCE FOR FRIDAY...WITH PERHAPS
JUST A SLIGHT RISE IN MTNS/DESERT...THEN TEMPS START AN UPWARD CLIMB
SATURDAY.

A SIGNIFICANT HEAT WAVE IS SHAPING UP FOR NEXT WEEK AS A LARGE RIDGE
AMPLIFIES AND RETROGRADES OVER THE WEST. PROGGED MRF 850 MB TEMPS
SOAR TO 30C+ IN MUCH OF THE VLLY BY TUE...WHICH OFTEN TRANSLATES TO
HOTTER SJ VLLY SITES HITTING CLOSER TO THE 110 DEGF MARK. DESERT
AREAS COULD POSSIBLY EXCEED 115F.

SOME WEAK MONSOON MOISTURE IS FCST TO APPROACH FROM THE SE BY MON,
AND POSSIBLY SOME BUILDUPS IN THE MTNS. MODELS SIMILAR WITH E-SE
FLOW ALOFT...MOISTURE INFLUX AT THIS TIME STILL LOOKS PRETTY WEAK,
AS RIDGE HOLDS DEEPER MOISTURE JUST SOUTH OF THE US BORDER. STILL
ENOUGH MID LEVEL MOISTURE FOR SLIGHT CHC T-STORMS IN THE MTNS
TUE-THU. KERN DESERTS DRY FOR NOW, BUT NEED TO WATCH FOR POSSIBILITY
OF LOWER LEVEL MSTR REACHING INTO THE LOWER SOCAL DESERTS.

.HNX...NONE.

LAVIS

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, Tulare

When: July 4, 10:00 PM PST to July 5, 5:00 PM PST
Where: Tulare County, 18 mi ENE of Porterville
Reported by: PARK/FOREST SERVICE
Coordinates: 36.220, -118.800 (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 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in California, July 2002

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: 5311297.