When this storm took place, I was 4 years old, and my family lived in Tucson. My aunt was taking care of us kids while my mom and dad were in San Francisco attending the World’s fair.
There must have been some of the storm which drifted in Arizona, although, the encyclopedia doesn’t say so. Anyway, the timing is right. And lightning hit our house, and it was scary. We had a walk in refrigerator on the back of our home, because my Dad worked for Standard brands, delivering refrigerated items, which were stored there. and this refrigerator had a motor on it, which lightning hit, and there was a small fire which my brother and aunt put out, but I still remember the noise and the smell of the ozone. Jim 1939 El Cordonaz o Tropical Storm
Date: Tuesday September 25, 2012
Time: 12:00 pm - 12:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles County
Notes: On this date in 1939 the only tropical storm to make landfall in California in the 20th Century did so with its center of circulation passing over Long Beach, CA.
That this storm system was even able to survive the typically cold waters along the coast of California was due to the presence of an ongoing El Nino climate condition.
This tropical system formed ten days earlier off the coast of Central America and subsequently strengthened to hurricane force before weakening to strong tropical storm force with maximum sustained winds near minimal Category One hurricane intensity.
The storm brought destructive winds and rains to the coastal waters and valleys and mountains of Southern California from Ventura to Orange County.
Numerous ships sank along the California Coast killing 48 people while 6 people died on beaches and dozens more were killed inland due to flooding. The later category of fatalities is difficult to count due deadly flooding the day before tropical storm made landfall. It is also worth noting that these storms ended a heat wave that killed 90 people.
In the Long Beach area the storm's winds blew out innumerable windows. Coastal flooding occurred all up and down the coast of the LA Basin. The pier at Point Mug was destroyed.
The Los Angeles River was transformed into a raging torrent. Power outages were widespread throughout the Los Angeles Basin and the City of Los Angeles experienced widespread street and building flooding and stranded cars. Coastal areas of Southern California were cluttered with debris.
Even the Mojave and Colorado Deserts (high and low deserts) experienced damaging floods as rail lines were washed out near Needles and Indio. Agricultural damage was extreme in the Coachella Valley due to flooding.
As a result of this storm the National Weather Bureau (forerunner to the National Weather Service) established an office in Southern California.
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