19TH-CENTURY COASTAL GALES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Severe southeast gales, large waves, and heavy precipitation were significant winter-storm events along the coast of southern California during the nineteenth century. Known as southeasters, those storms caused erosion and strong littoral transport to the north. They were most likely intense extratropical cyclones that passed through southern or central California. The frequency and intensity of the storms diminished toward the end of the century, which suggests that the storminess was characteristic of the late Little Ice Age climate in the low middle latitudes of the eastern Pacific.