A hot day in Santa Barbara, but not 133 degrees

I come home from vacation and feel like another vacation is just beginning at home in Santa Barbara. People here LOVE to talk about how much they LOVE Santa Barbara. Travel writer Pico Iyer said when he spoke at the SBMA in 2002, “it’s in the air, it’s in the mountains, it’s in the beaches, it’s in all the elements, this sense that you’re just inches away from a utopia.”

But today complete strangers stop each other on the street to talk about the heat. Everyone looks drained, productivity is low. And lines are out the door at Blenders Smoothies. So when we are all feeling this rare extreme heat, it is like some shared traumatic experience that drives people to become even friendlier versions of their congenial Santa Barbara selves.

We are used to weather being a non-issue, at least compared to most locales. When I visit my sister in Ohio, her husband seems to always be talking about the weather, not to make forced conversation, but because it truly is an issue in their lives, with day-to-day effects involving tire chains and raking leaves. And in the summer months when it truly is beautiful, they must go outside, put everything else on hold, and take advantage.

But we have extreme weather here too. And although today’s heat seemed like it could break a record, my co-worker Tracey shared this today: in 1859 Santa Barbara seared with 133-degree record heat that remains the third hottest temperature ever recorded on earth.

Upon further research, my boyfriend found some information from accounts of that day, gathered mainly from here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=564672:

"For many years, Goleta (next to Santa Barbara on the coast) held theU.S. temperature record of 133 degrees from a sundowner heat burstevent on June 17, 1859. I found this event hard to believe when I first read about it in thebook 'California's Wonderful Corner' (1975) by local historian WalkerA. Tompkins. He called the wind a simoon, an Arabic word." "June 17, 1859 - The only 'simoon' ever to occur in the United Statesis reported by a United States Coast Survey vessel off Goleta. Anorthwest wind brings scorching temperatures of 133 degrees between1:00 and 2:00 that afternoon. Birds fall from the sky, crops shriveland cattle die under the shade of oak trees." Here's a description of the event: "THE SUN COMES UP bright that day. It is a Friday-June 17, 1859. Thereis a little breeze from the northeast, a clear sky, and the promise ofa warm day. The morning temperatures are normal, 75-to-80 degrees,with an offshore breeze that prevents the ocean from having a coolingeffect. By noon, people begin to notice something unusual is happening. Thetemperature has quickly risen to almost 100 degrees and the mountainbreeze is becoming stronger and stronger. About 1 pm a heavy blast ofhot air sweeps through the Goleta Valley from the direction of SantaYnez Peak, driving even the hardiest into the shelter of their homesand filling them with terror; they think the end of the world hascome. The superheated air continues to pour down on the coast for the nexthour. By 2 pm the temperature is an incredible 133 degrees! Many ofthe people take refuge behind the thick walls of Daniel Hill's adobe,who is owner of Rancho La Goleta, where they pray fervently for theoppressive heat to be lifted. For the next three hours the temperature hovers at 130 degrees; by 5pm it has cooled off only slightly, to 122 degrees. The inhabitantswonder if this will ever come to an end. Then suddenly, as fast as ithas come, the hot breeze dies and a cool marine breeze washes over theland. By 7 pm the temperature is a comfortable 77 degrees and thehalf-baked citizens emerge from their houses to see what damage hasoccurred. 'Birds had plummeted dead from the sky; others had flown into wellsseeking cooler air and drowned,' says Walker Tompkins, describing theevent in his book, Goleta the Good Land. 'A fisherman in a rowboatmade it in to the Goleta sandspit with his face and arms blistered asif he had been exposed to a blast furnace.' 'Calves, rabbits and cattle died on their feet,' adds a government report." From a newspaper account of the "Great Simoon": "In June 1859 Santa Barbara’s weather had been quite normal, withhighs in the 70s and low 80s. But on June 17th, all the record bookswere broken. Santa Barbara experienced the greatest temperature changein one day in North America. The day began sunny and clear. Around noon, the temperature was anunusually warm 100°. Then a hot air current swept into the ChannelBasin. This was no regular Santa Ana wind; rather it swept in from thenorthwest. Residents called it a simoon, referring to the hot, dustyand suffocating winds of the Arabian Desert. The simoon struck like afurnace, destroying nearly everything in its path. Cattle droppeddead. Fruit fell from trees and withered on the ground. Vegetation wasscorched and crops were ruined for the year. As thermometers rose to an incredible 133°, there was so much dust inthe air that residents could scarcely see the sun. People fled totheir homes or local churches, seeking shelter... For some threehours, the temperature held steady at 130°. Then, around 5 in theevening, the temperature cooled to a still sizzling 122°. But then thesimoon left as quickly as it had come. By 7 p.m., the temperature wasback to 77°!"