{"id":5313,"date":"2025-02-18T22:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T22:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/?p=5313"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:34:53","slug":"a-short-history-of-californias-biggest-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/2025\/02\/18\/a-short-history-of-californias-biggest-storms\/","title":{"rendered":"A short history of California’s biggest storms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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A short history of California’s biggest storms<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n February 18, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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An anonymous lithograph, published by A. Rosenthal of San Francisco in the late 1800s, shows one impact of the Great Flood of 1862: With Sacramento inundated, residents of California’s state capital had to navigate the streets in boats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Known for its warm dry air, endless sunny days, and cooler nights, Southern California’s mediterranean-like climate attracts people from around the world.<\/p>\n

But come fall, when the Santa Ana winds start blowing and the rainy season rolls in, some locals may find themselves surprised by just how extreme and dramatic weather events can get in this part of the country. Tropical hurricanes rarely make landfall in Southern California, but there have been a few occasions where the climate was ripe. Then there are the impacts of atmospheric rivers that bring flooding and landslides.<\/p>\n

When speaking about the worst storms in SoCal history, we have to go back to the 1860s, when the \u201cGreat Flood\u201d of 1862 devastated parts of Southern California after weeks and weeks of rain. Listen to historian and Wrigley Institute faculty affiliate Bill Deverell as he shares the incredible events surrounding this and some of the region’s other epic storms.<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast on LAist >><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n After Lewis and Clark: 5 mapping expeditions that defined the landscape of the American West<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/article>\n
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\n Anti-Freeway Fervor in California: Can History Point Us in a More Equitable Direction?\u00a0<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/article>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":5314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[16,83,96],"class_list":["post-5313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-faculty","tag-history","tag-natural-disasters"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA short history of California's biggest storms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/2025\/02\/18\/a-short-history-of-californias-biggest-storms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A short history of California's biggest storms - 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