A brush fire consumed 621 acres in the hills northeast of Pala before being fully contained. One firefighter was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.
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.
A brush fire consumed 621 acres in the hills northeast of Pala before being fully contained. One firefighter was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. Some families on the Pala Indian Reservation were evacuated when flames approached their homes, but no structures were damaged.
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 Jul 1, 2:00 AM PST, 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO 300 AM PDT THU JUL 1 2004 .SYNOPSIS...LOW PRESSURE ALOFT WILL CONTINUE A DEEP MARINE LAYER FOR LOW CLOUDS AND PATCHY FOG FROM THE MOUNTAINS WEST IN THE NIGHTS AND MORNINGS. WARMER INLAND...WITH A DECREASING MARINE LAYER THIS WEEKEND AND EARLY NEXT WEEK AS THE LOW WEAKENS. OTHERWISE...FAIR. && .DISCUSSION...FOR EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA INCLUDING ORANGE... SAN DIEGO...WESTERN RIVERSIDE AND SOUTHWESTERN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES. STRATUS SLOWLY FILLING IN THIS MORNING IN A CHAOTIC MANNER. ONSHORE GRADIENTS A BIT WEAKER. IR SAT LOOP SHOWS HIGHER CLOUDS MOVING NE... OUT OF THE FORECAST AREA. WATER VAPOR LOOP STILL HINTS AT A SIGNIFICANT VORT MAX ROUNDING THE BASE OF THE BROAD TROUGH OFF THE COAST. THE MODELS DEPICTION OF THE 500 MB VORTICITY FIELD APPEARS TO MOVE THIS FEATURE TOO FAST OR AVERAGE IT INTO THE UPSTREAM FEATURE. IN ANY CASE...THE MODELS KEEP THE TROUGH IN PLACE TODAY SO THEY SEEM TO BE ON THE RIGHT TRACK WITH THE OVERALL PATTERN. LITTLE CHANGE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK. THEN...AS WE BEGIN THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND THE TROUGH WEAKENS...WHICH SHOULD ALLOW SOME WARMING...ESPECIALLY INLAND. MAX TEMPS HAVE BEEN RUNNING ABOUT TEN DEGREES BELOW NORMAL IN THOSE AREAS...SO EXPECT TO TACK ON ABOUT 5 DEGREES OR SO OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS. THERE IS A HINT AT SOME WEAK RIDGING LATE IN THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND AND EARLY NEXT WEEK WHICH COULD PUSH TEMPS UP A FEW MORE DEGREES INLAND THEN...HOWEVER COASTAL AREAS SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE MODERATED BY A GOOD SEA BREEZE. THERE WERE A FEW CUMULUS IN THE SAN BERNARDINO MTNS YESTERDAY...AND A FEW MORE COULD DEVELOP TODAY BUT SW FLOW...OR RIDGING ALOFT SHOULD KEEP SKIES DRY FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. LOOKING FURTHER OUT TOWARD THE END OF NEXT WEEK...LATEST GFS LOOKS LIKE IT HAS FLIPPED BACK TO A AN UPPER TROUGHING PATTERN OVER SOCAL. SO IT LOOKS A BIT PREMATURE FOR FORECASTING ANY MAJOR CHANGES IN THE CURRENT PATTERN. .SGX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && JAD
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, July 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: 5411320.