But on December 12, 1995, 29 years ago today, such a Pacific storm occurred that devastated Washington, Oregon and California and was considered the strongest in the San Francisco Bay Area since the mid-20th century.

On December 11–12, a bomb cyclone intensified off the coast of southern Oregon, driving a wave of strong winds ashore. While it was not considered as intense in Washington and Oregon as the 1962 Columbus Day storm, it produced a gust of 119 mph near Florence, Oregon, and set all-time low pressure records in Seattle and Medford, Oregon.

The storm really left its mark on Northern California, where it was and remains the strongest storm to hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area since 1950, according to California meteorologist Jan Null.

Gusts of up to 85 miles per hour toppled 1,000 trees in Golden Gate Park and caused $15 million in damage to the San Francisco Arboretum. One million customers lost power in Northern California, a record for Northern California. These failures led to school closures, some of which lasted several days. Another million customers in Washington and Oregon were left in the dark.

Up to 21 inches of rain fell in Mendocino County, California. Five inches of rain fell in downtown San Francisco in just over 24 hours.

This section originally appeared in today’s Morning Brief newsletter. Register here to receive weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Jonathan Erdman is the senior meteorologist at Weather.com and has been reporting on domestic and international weather conditions since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather conditions are his favorite topics. Contact him at Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) And Facebook.​