Historic Wild Weather Day In OC When Record Winds Blasted Anaheim: NWS

ANAHEIM, CA —April 5 has some notorious connotations in Southern California, according to the National Weather Service. The area has witnessed torrential downpours, wild winds and record temperatures in both highs and lows. Still, the April 5, 1926 tornado that touched down in the San Diego area remains the most significant storm in San Diego's history, according to a National Weather Service San Diego report. That day, an extensive rainstorm and severe weather including a tornado that ransacked several neighborhoods, the NWS shared.

Historic winds have swept across Orange County on this day in history, as well.

In 1983, Orange County saw some of the strongest winds gust through Anaheim and Disneyland, according to the NWS.

"Strong winds at Disneyland jolted the cable off a guide wheel on the Skyway gondola lift, prompting an automatic shutdown," they said. Elsewhere in Anaheim, winds knocked a man through a glass window that day, they said.

Watch a video of a leisurely ride across Disneyland on the Skyway on a wind-free day, from Youtuber "Oldies to Remember."

Still, the storm in San Diego caused the most damage on this day in history in 1926, according to the NWS. That storm brought over 3.25 inches of rainfall to San Diego, with strong winds and floodwaters that brought over four feet of mud to some parts of the city. San Diego, National City and Chula Vista residents received the brunt of that brutal storm. That day, short-period rainfall records were shattered, according to the NWS. Some parts of San Diego received over a quarter inch of rain in five minutes, three-quarters of an inch in 30 minutes, and over 1.15 inches in an hour and 2.09 inches in two hours, according to the 1926 news report.

Invariably, flooding followed.

"Floodwaters and mud up to four feet deep inundated the eastern part of Downtown San Diego and National City," the NWS reported. Train tracks were covered across the county, affecting railway travel into Orange County, it was reported as wind and flood damages took their toll across the greater San Diego area.

The flooding displaced a total of 150 families and businesses, but that was not the worst of it.

Out in the Pacific, a waterspout formed came ashore and became a tornado that struck National City at its core.

That twister injured 18 people, and 21 homes lay in ruins. They were "total wrecks," according to the NWS. Many other homes and buildings, many of them "magnificent bungalows," were "lashed to atoms by the furious winds," in National City, Chula Vista and San Diego, according to an April 6 report from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"One shingle was driven into the side of a building, 'as if it had been shot from a gun,'" media reports shared. "The garage of the Kelley Laundry Company at India and Grape Streets appears to have been the first point touched by the twister which then moved on in a general northeasterly direction, causing havoc in Balboa Park."

There, trees were downed and power was knocked out. The event was listed as the most damaging tornado in San Diego County's history to date.

In Riverside County and Orange County, this day in history also reached high marks with record rainfall and wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service.

On April 5, 1926, Riverside County saw monthly single-day rainfall records set in Julian (3.70 inches), Riverside(3.07 inches), and Indio (0.76 inches), according to the NWS report.

That same historic storm brought over half an inch of rain to Opid's Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains in under one minute. Also, the greatest one-minute rainfall in state history—3.85 inches—fell in San Bernardino, a record that held for 45 years.

More recently, on April 5, 2006, another wild weather storm hit much of Riverside County, along with another tornado sighting. That day, penny-sized hail slammed atop Corona residences and businesses and lightning damaged two homes in Rialto, according to the NWS.

"Thunderstorm winds blew down trees in Mira Loma, and a funnel cloud was spotted in Riverside, near Highway 60 and the I-215," the NWS reported. That day, over 10 inches of snow fell in the mountains "at resort level" and closed Highway 18 through "The Narrows."

Read more about the daily weather history on the www.weather.gov site.