Local Hazard History
San Diego's mild Mediterranean coast masks a serious three-part hazard profile — fire, shaking, and water. Wildfire is the signature threat. The 2003 Cedar Fire burned more than 273,000 acres, destroyed 2,232 homes, and killed 15 people, standing for years as the largest wildfire in California history. Four years later, the 2007 Witch Creek Fire forced the evacuation of roughly 500,000 people across San Diego County — one of the largest evacuations in state history — with tens of thousands sheltering at Qualcomm Stadium. Both were driven by autumn Santa Ana winds, the hot, dry offshore gusts that can turn a spark in the backcountry into a firestorm at the urban edge within hours. Less visible but potentially catastrophic is the Rose Canyon Fault — an active strike-slip fault that comes ashore and runs directly beneath downtown San Diego, the convention center, and up through La Jolla. The USGS has modeled a magnitude-6.9 scenario earthquake on it; its last major rupture is estimated around 1862, and long quiet stretches are exactly why the risk is under-appreciated. The coast floods, too: on January 22, 2024, San Diego recorded its wettest January day in more than 170 years — about 2.73 inches of rain in a matter of hours — and the runoff sent flash floods through Southcrest, Shelltown, Mountain View, and Encanto, damaging more than 1,000 homes and prompting a city and county state of emergency.