Heavy rains caused Escondido Creek to overflow it's bank in the Harmony Grove area. One motorist had to be rescued after his vehicle stalled while trying to cross a flooded roadway.
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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.
Heavy rains caused Escondido Creek to overflow it's bank in the Harmony Grove area. One motorist had to be rescued after his vehicle stalled while trying to cross a flooded roadway.
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 Feb 11, 3:30 AM PST, 4 hours 30 minutes earlier.
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA 330 AM PST TUE FEB 11 2003 .SYNOPSIS...A MOISTURE LADEN PACIFIC STORM WILL BRING CLOUDY SKIES AND INTERMITTENT LIGHT RAIN TODAY. HEAVY RAIN IS LIKELY TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS POSSIBLE INTO FRIDAY. WEAK HIGH PRESSURE WILL BRING PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES OVER THE WEEKEND. .DISCUSSION...WARM OVER RUNNING LED TO DEFORMATION MID/HIGH LEVEL CLOUD SHIELD AND A FEW SPRINKLES YESTERDAY...RAIN BAND CURRENTLY MOVING NORTH ACROSS FORECAST AREA APPEARS TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH WARM FRONT. SOUTHEAST TRAJECTORIES IN LOW LEVELS TODAY WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP AIR MASS FROM MOISTENING RAPIDLY SO RAINFALL AMOUNTS EXPECTED TO BE RESTRICTED TO TRACE TO LIGHT AMOUNTS. MODERATE TO STRONG SOUTHERLY WINDS/LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE BEGINS IN ABOUT 24 HOURS WITH 850 MB WINDS INCREASING TO 45 KNOTS. MODELS GENERATE +0.50 INCHES/6 HOURS ALL DAY WEDNESDAY...ETA IS CLOSER TO 2 INCHES/6 HOURS WITH BULLSEYE CENTERED OVER SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS. EVEN THIS MAY BE UNDERFORECAST. AN ANALOGOUS STORM...ALMOST 25 YEARS AGO TO THE DATE...GENERATED 4-16 INCHES OF RAIN OVER THE SAME AREA. PLAN TO BOOST POPS STILL A LITTLE EARLY TO ISSUE FLASH FLOOD WATCH...BUT WILL HIGHLITE THREAT IN HWOSGX AND QPSSAN AND SEND AN UPDATED SPSSGX WITH BEEFED UP AMOUNTS AROUND 6 AM PST. WITH FREEZING LEVEL ABOVE 11000 FEET ON 11/00Z KNKX SOUNDING AND 700/850 MB TEMPERATURES FORECAST TO REMAIN AT OR ABOVE -2/+7 DEGREES CELSIUS THROUGH WEDNESDAY...THIS WILL MAINLY A RAIN EVENT WITH SNOW LEVEL REMAINING ABOVE 9000 FEET. LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT/THURSDAY COULD SEE SNOW LEVEL LOWER TO 8500 FEET AS COLD CORE OF UPPER TROUGH MOVES CLOSER/INLAND BUT MAIN PRECIPITATION THREAT BY THEN WILL HAVE MOVED NORTH AND EAST. THUS CURRENT ADVERTISED SNOW AMOUNTS NOT APPLICABLE TO MOUNTAIN POPULATION CENTERS/MAJORITY OF ZONE SO WILL LIKELY DROP MENTION FROM ZONES. WAS NOT ANTICIPATING ANY CHANGES TO DAYS 4 THROUGH DAY 7 FORECAST...BUT MAY NEED TO ADJUST TIMING OF PRECIPITATION THREAT FROM NEXT TROUGH TO MESH WITH UPSTREAM ZONES. .SAN...SPSSGX FOR STORM WED/THU...ALSO SEE HWOSGX AND QPSSAN. BALFOUR
CAZ042-043-048-050-055>058-060>062-121400- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 600 AM PST TUE FEB 11 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. .DAY ONE... TODAY THROUGH TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY POSSIBLE HEAVY DOWNPOURS AND FLASH FLOODING... PROLONGED RAINFALL WITH RIVER FLOODING... FOR ALL OF EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA... WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. BALFOUR
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 505 AM PST TUE FEB 11 2003 CAZ042-043-048-050-055>058-060>062-PZZ750-775-112300- ALL OF EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA- 505 AM PST TUE FEB 11 2003 ...A PACIFIC STORM WILL AFFECT EXTREME SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LATE TUESDAY INTO FRIDAY... A WARM FRONT AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING PACIFIC STORM BROUGHT LIGHT RAIN TO SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA DURING THE NIGHT. AT 400 AM PST TUESDAY THE STORM WAS CENTERED ABOUT 650 MILES WEST SOUTHWEST OF SAN DIEGO. INTERMITTENT LIGHT RAIN WILL CONTINUE TODAY. MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN IS EXPECTED TONIGHT WITH HEAVY RAIN ON WEDNESDAY. THE LATEST RAINFALL ESTIMATES FOR WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY ARE FOR ABOUT 1 TO 3 INCHES WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS...4 TO 7 INCHES IN THE MOUNTAINS AND A THIRD TO AN 1 INCH IN THE DESERTS. THE GROUND IS DRY SO IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME FOR RUNOFF TO DEVELOP. HOWEVER...IF THESE LARGE RAINFALL TOTALS MATERIALIZE THEN THERE COULD EVENTUALLY BE SOME FLOODING OF POORLY DRAINED LOW LYING AREAS AND SMALL STREAMS. THERE COULD ALSO BE MUD SLIDES...ESPECIALLY IN THE RECENTLY BURNED AREAS. THIS IS A WARM STORM AND THE SNOW LEVEL WILL REMAIN HIGH...ABOVE 9000 FT THROUGH WEDNESDAY THEN GRADUALLY LOWER TO NEAR 7000 FT BY FRIDAY. THE RAIN WILL TURN TO SHOWERS LATE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY AND GRADUALLY TAPER OFF. BALFOUR
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in California, February 2003
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: 5340889.