Winter Weather — Frazier Mountain Communities, California

2022-03-28 to 2022-03-29 · Frazier Mountain Communities, California

Event narrative

Several social media reports of 2 to 6 inches of new snowfall.

Wider weather episode

After a period of unseasonably warm temperatures across the area between March 22 and March 26, an upper low pressure system approached the southern California coast on March 27 and brought increased winds to the West Side Hills and the Tehachapi Mountains during the evening of March 27 through the morning of March 28. Several stations reported gusts exceeding 45 mph with a few stations measuring gusts above 55 mph. As the low moved inland on March 28, a band of precipitation pushed eastward across the area during the morning and afternoon hours. Behind this band, skies cleared out and with cooler air pushing into the area aloft, instability was sufficient for thunderstorms to develop across the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra foothills during the afternoon through the early evening hours although the thunderstorms were rapid movers and did not produce any significant flooding as a result. Most of the San Joaquin valley and Sierra Foothills picked up between a quarter inch and a half inch of rainfall with locations impacted by thunderstorms picking up more. Much of the Sierra Nevada picked up between 0.40 and 0.80 inches of liquid precipitation. Many stations above 5500 feet in the Sierra Nevada picked up between 3 and 8 inches of new snowfall while many stations above 5500 feet in the Tehachapi Mountains picked up between 2 and 6 inches of new snowfall.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1004437. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.