About: 1939 California tropical storm

The 1939 California tropical storm, also known as the 1939 Long Beach tropical storm, and El Cordonazo, was a tropical cyclone that affected Southern California in September 1939. Formerly a hurricane, it was the only tropical storm to make landfall in California in the twentieth century. Fisherman in the villages along the Mexican coast have named these storms, the Lash of St. Francis. The only other known tropical cyclone to directly affect California at tropical storm intensity or higher is the 1858 San Diego hurricane (though it did not make landfall), and only three other eastern Pacific tropical cyclones have produced gale-force winds in the continental United States. The tropical storm caused heavy flooding, leaving many dead, mostly at sea.