Horsethief Canyon Ranch
Cloudburst Drive Weather Station (1390’)
Luiseno Elementary School Weather Station, Live!
(33° 43’ 51” N – 117° 25’ 40” W)
¼ Mile Above Lower Park

Index Monthly Weather Summary for HCR HCR Extremes Since July 1st, 1990 Historical Rainfall Data (LA vs. HCR) Monthly highlights worth mentioning Instrument Location and Photographs Station History/Maintenance

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Weather Pictures Landspout, Nichols Road, 2005

 

HCR Extremes Since July 1, 1990

 

 

Monthly Highlights Worth Mentioning

October, 2004:

Storms with high winds struck in October. A max wind gust of 48 mph was recorded on the 17^th. This tied the previous peak wind gust ever recorded on my instrument back in the ’92-’93 storm season.

November, 2004:

Snow fell and stuck at the top of HCR on the 21^st after a surprise storm brought a night of thunder, lightning, wind, rain, hail, sleet, and snow. A total of 1.13 inches of rain fell in the storm.

December, 2004:

Storms produced stiff winds similar to November, knocking more trees down in HTC.

January, 2005:

Lots and lots of rain. HTC Creek plus other creeks are now flowing across Temescal Canyon road.

February, 2005:

Heavy rain continued. This year is now in 3^rd place for the wettest year in HCR since 1990. We have a ways to go to reach the 35.09” of 1992-93. As of 3/1/05, Lake Elsinore was seven inches away from overflowing into Temescal Canyon Wash. If that happens, the roads at the bottom of the hill will really get messy.

March, 2005:

The “faucet” turned off this month giving us a chance to dry out. Looks like the rainy season may be coming to an abrupt close.

April, 2005:

An unusually strong storm, for April, dumped 0.95” of rain in the morning hours of the 28^th.

June, 2005:

Although the season’s total rainfall in L.A. was the second wettest in history, it was HCR’s third wettest, coming in at 29.49 inches.

July, 2005:

Summer monsoon season started. Severe thunderstorms were all around but not quite on top of HCR. Warmest night since 1990, 76 °F, was recorded.

September, 2005:

The 20^th of the month brought the most spectacular, non-stop lightning show seen in my lifetime. Starting with a beautiful rainbow at sunset with forks of lightning seen in the background, the lightning didn’t stop until mid-morning the following day. A brief heavy downpour brought the monthly rainfall total to about a quarter of an inch.

October, 2005:

More thunderstorms formed in the latest early fall cutoff low. Most of the activity was toward L.A.

July, 2006:

Amazing monsoon flow occurred this month. Record high and record nighttime temperatures were set. Thunderstorms were plentiful and dropped .15” of rain. Although I recorded a high of 111.6 on my Oregon Scientific instrument, I believe I was about 2 degrees too warm since my home made radiation shield is not as good as it should be. My new Davis instrument runs about 2 degrees cooler - so I am logging 109.6 as my new high temp for that day.

January, 2007:

January saw two records fall. A 53 mph wind gust beat the old record of 48 mph. Also, a very cold high pressure helped to break the low temperature record with a low of 25.2 °F.

June, 2007:

This year has been the driest in HISTORY in Downtown Los Angeles (3.21"), and we can probably assume the same for HCR (1.40").

August, 2007:

A very intense thunderstorm hit, dropping 0.93" of rain in about an hours time. Tree damage was widespread in HCR - some older Eucalyptus trees near the horses on Temescal Canyon Road were broken in half by the microburst. A 45 mph max gust was recorded and a rain rate of 4.09"/hour occured for over two minutes. Here is a link to the recorded event.   HCRStorm20070902

November, 2007:

A cut-off low hovered 500 miles off the tip of Baja and moved northward over southern california. As it approached, it interacted with a rather dry, but cold, frontal boundary. This interaction caused a surface low to develop quickly right over S.C. as it approached from the south. We got 2.07 inches of rain. The barometer dropped to 29.51" and then rebounded over the next two days to an all time high for HCR of 30.47. You can see the pressure profile by clicking here.

May, 2008:

May 22, 2008 - Open House Storm - Heaviest rain I have ever seen or recorded - peak rate of 6.55 inches / hour - see data table. Lowest recorded air pressure (SLP: 29.40, Altimeter: 29.44). Multiple tornadoes spawned near March Air Force Base and Perris - some visible from HCR in this picture and video. Ten train box cars were overturned and a semi flipped - which almost became the first fatality due to tornado in California. This picture captured the moment.

 

 

Instrument Location

Off the 15 freeway (seen below), about 10 miles Southeast of the 91/15 interchange in Corona, CA.

 

Pictures of weather instrument outside placements Wind: Two rooftop anemometers are present. Allows cross checking of data. The Davis instrument is used for web updates. View Image Temp/Humidity/ Dew Point/Rain: Some rain shadow affects may occur due to the close distance from the house, especially in a south wind. Another rooftop manual Rain Gauge is used for my official totals.The Davis database will be updated with these totals after each storm event. View Image 1 View Image 2 (Proximity to house)