A major thunderstorm around San Diego over the weekend made Sunday the wettest July day on record since data started being collected in 1850. Lindbergh Field was drenched with 1.03 inches of rain.
The previous record of 0.01 inches was set in 1922.
Weather.com reported that the thunderstorm, a vestige of Mexico’s Hurricane Dolores, not only shattered the July single-day record, but broke the record for an entire July’s rainfall. Weather.com also stated, “Los Angeles, San Diego and over a dozen other California cities set all-time rainfall records for the month of July.”
On Saturday, according to the Times of San Diego, rainfall across the county reached a quarter inch by noon.
James Thomas of the National Weather Service (NWS) was startled by the thunderstorm moving over the mountains to the coastline. He told ABC10, “They mostly hit the mountains. There needs to be a subtropical disturbance in order for these storms to happen in coastal areas.” He explained that the storm was triggered by warm temperatures and high pressure catalyzed by the hurricane.
The NWS said roughly 1800 lightning events occurred, with 528 bolts striking the ground. 14,000 San Diego Gas and Electric customers temporarily lost power.
The California Highway Patrol’s incident log on Saturday was four pages long, with roughly 200 events listed.
More rain hit on Sunday; around 4 p.m., a flash flood warning was issued for the towns of Poway, Ramona, Alpine, Valley Ctr, Tierrasanta, Escondido, and a flood advisory was issued for El Cajon, Poway, Ramona, Alpine, and Julian.