Named the Pleasure Fire, it started from a vehicle fire along Highway 371. Hot and dry conditions helped the adjacent brush catch fire.
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.
Named the Pleasure Fire, it started from a vehicle fire along Highway 371. Hot and dry conditions helped the adjacent brush catch fire. Record high temperatures persisted for the next 3 days across Southern california, allowing the fire to quickly consume 2,334 acres. Five mobile homes, four travel trailers, four commerical vehicles, 28 passenger vehicles, and four out buildings were also destroyed. The estimated cost for fighting the fire was $1.3 million and involved 751 fire fighters.
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 Apr 25, 6:30 AM PST, 5 hours 38 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO 730 AM PDT SUN APR 25 2004 .SYNOPSIS...HIGH PRESSURE WILL CONTINUE FAIR AND WARM WEATHER INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK. UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE WILL BRING A COOLING TREND TOWARD THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK WITH AN INCREASING MARINE LAYER FOR MORE LOW CLOUDS AND FOG WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS DURING THE NIGHTS AND MORNINGS. A LITTLE WARMER NEXT WEEKEND UNDER WEAK HIGH PRESSURE. && .DISCUSSION...FOR EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA INCLUDING ORANGE... SAN DIEGO...WESTERN RIVERSIDE AND SOUTHWESTERN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES. QUICK UPDATE TO SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL ZONE TO MENTION PATCHY DENSE FOG NEAR THE BEACHES TODAY. ALREADY REPORTS OF NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY AS OF 7 AM PDT AT MISSION BEACH. LATEST SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW SOME FOG ALONG THE ORANGE COUNTY COAST AS WELL. MODELS INDICATE OFFSHORE FLOW WILL STRENGTHEN A BIT TONIGHT OVER ORANGE COUNTY WHICH SHOULD LIMIT THE FOG TONIGHT IN THAT AREA. RIDGE DOMINATES THROUGH THE EARLY PART OF THE WEEK. SHORTWAVE TROUGH AND ASSOCIATED UPPER LOW SLIDES SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN DURING THE LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK RESULTING IN A DEEPENING MARINE LAYER...COASTAL EDDY AND COOLING MOST AREAS. OTHERWISE CONTINUED DRY. && .SGX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && HORTON
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 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in California, April 2004
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: 5393505.