A cold-core cutoff low pressure system off the coast of Southern California brought heavy rain to Orange County and waterspouts to the San Diego County coast. A band of convection just off the coast of San Diego and Orange Counties produced a line of at least 8 waterspouts and countless more funnel clouds in the span of about an hour.
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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.
A cold-core cutoff low pressure system off the coast of Southern California brought heavy rain to Orange County and waterspouts to the San Diego County coast. A band of convection just off the coast of San Diego and Orange Counties produced a line of at least 8 waterspouts and countless more funnel clouds in the span of about an hour. Several of these waterspouts occurred simultaneously within close proximity to each other. One waterspout came ashore at Cardiff State Beach and blew over some tents. Another waterspout came ashore in Newport Beach. None of the waterspouts caused any serious damage. The exact number of waterspouts and funnel clouds is not known, and the position and path length of each waterspout and funnel cloud is very much a rough estimate. This event was not associated with island band convection.
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 Sep 22, 7:00 AM PST, 3 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 800 AM PDT SAT SEP 22 2007 .SYNOPSIS... A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM NEAR POINT CONCEPTION THIS MORNING WILL MOVE NORTHEAST AND INLAND INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA BY THIS EVENING. SCATTERED LIGHT SHOWERS TILL OCCUR THIS MORING...MAINLY ALONG AND WEST OF INTERSTATE 15. PRECIPITATION WILL TAPER OFF THIS AFTERNOON AS THE LOW EXITS THE AREA. RESIDUAL MOISTURE WILL CONTINUE SOME CLOUDS TONIGHT...THEN CLEARING ON SUNDAY. A WARMING TREND WILL OCCUR EARLY NEXT WEEK AS TEMPERATURES APPROACH SEASONAL NORMALS. SLIGHT COOLING IS EXPECTED TOWARDS THE END OF THE WEEK. THE MARINE LAYER WILL BE WEEK FOR MOST OF THE NEXT WEEK. AUTUMN OFFICIALLY BEGINS THIS SUNDAY AT 251 AM PDT. && .DISCUSSION...FOR EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA INCLUDING ORANGE... SAN DIEGO...WESTERN RIVERSIDE AND SOUTHWESTERN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES. SATELLITE IMAGERY AND DOPPLER RADAR INDICATES THE UPPER LOW WAS TO THE WEST OF POINT CONCEPTION...ABOUT 200 NM WEST OF WHERE THE 12Z MODELS ON FRIDAY INDICATED THE LOW WOULD BE IN 24 HOURS...12Z SATURDAY. AS A RESULT...MOST OF THE SHOWER ACTIVITY WAS SHIFTED FURTHER WEST THAN WAS INDICATED ON FRIDAY...MAINLY ALONG THE COAST OF OUR CWA AND OVER THE LA BASIN AND POINTS WEST AND NORTH OF THERE. SOME LIGHT SHOWERS WERE OCCURRING FURTHER EAST AND INLAND OVER THE CWA AS WEAK BANDS OF MOISTURE MOVED ONSHORE. SAN DIEGO LINDBERGH FIELD THIS MORNING PICKED UP THE FIRST MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION SINCE APRIL 23...0.03 INCH. MODELS INDICATE ANOTHER SHORTWAVE TROUGH WILL SWING THROUGH THE AREA LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING WHICH SHOULD HELP KEEP CLOUDS OVER THE AREA AND SOME LIGHT SHOWERS CAN BE EXPECTED OUT OF THIS MOISTURE AS WELL. MOISTURE BEGINS TO MOVE OUT OF THE AREA ON SUNDAY WITH FURTHER DRYING SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY. THE 06Z GFS SHOWS WEAK CYCLONIC FLOW OVER THE AREA THROUGH THE EARLY PART OF NEXT WEEK BUT WITH DRY CONDITIONS. EXPECT TEMPERATURES TO BE MORE SEASONAL DURING THE PERIOD. ANOTHER UPPER LOW DEVELOPS DURING THE WEEK BUT FURTHER OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WHICH PUTS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNDER A WEAK RIDGE LATE IN THE WEEK. NOT PLANNING ANY CHANGES TO THE FORECAST AT THIS TIME. && .AVIATION... 221500Z...LOW PRESSURE OFF THE COAST CONTINUES TO BRING IN BANDS OF CLOUDS AND SHOWERS THIS MORNING. THE LOW IS MOVING INTO THE POINT CONCEPTION AREA. BASES ABOUT 5K FT WITH LOCAL BASES 2000 TO 2500 FT MSL WITH VSBY 3-5SM AND AROUND 1000 FT MSL WITH VSBY AROUND 1SM IN HEAVY SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS. CLOUD TOPS UP TO 25K FT. DECREASING CHANCES LATE MORNING THROUGH AFTERNOON. && .MARINE... SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WERE MOVING THROUGH THE COASTAL WATERS THIS MORNING. THEY WILL BE DECREASING MID TO LATE MORNING THROUGH AFTERNOON. A MARINE WEATHER STATEMENT IS IN EFFECT FOR LOCAL GUSTY WINDS AND POSSIBLE FUNNEL CLOUDS OR WATERSPOUTS. && .SGX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR THE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND SANTA ANA MTNS/FOOTHILLS THROUGH NOON...MAINLY FOR THE RECENT BURN AREAS. SEE LAXFFASGX. MARINE WEATHER STATEMENT. SEE LAXMWSSGX. && PUBLIC...HORTON AVIATION/MARINE...ECC
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 530 PM PDT FRI SEP 21 2007 CAZ042-043-048-050-055-056-057-058-060-061-062-221200- ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS- SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL AREAS- SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE- SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS- SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS- RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS- SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS- SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS- APPLE AND LUCERNE VALLEYS- COACHELLA VALLEY- SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS- 530 PM PDT FRI SEP 21 2007 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR ALL OF EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE MOUNTAINS...MAINLY FOR THE RECENT BURN AREAS THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING. SEE LAXFFASGX FOR DETAILS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS SATURDAY...THEN NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTERS MAY BE ACTIVATED THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING. MOEDE
The Santa Ana Mts radar (KSOX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:01 UTC.
3 funnel cloud, 2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
The public posted YouTube footage of a waterspout coming ashore in Newport Beach. The waterspout dissipated about one minute after leavig the ocean. The time of the event is estimated.
A waterspout came ashore at Cardiff State Beach. Several tents were thrown into the air. The waterspout dissipated rapidly upon coming ashore.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2007Every state in 2007This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for California, 2007Warnings in California, September 2007
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: 60719, 60720, 61208, 61209, 60718.