High Wind — West Side Mountains North of Highway 198, California

2023-01-04 · West Side Mountains North of Highway 198, California

Event narrative

The Panoche Road RAWS measured a peak wind gust of 62 mph.

Wider weather episode

A large low pressure system brought moderate to heavy precipitation, widespread flooding and strong winds to the area on January 4 and 5. This system had an atmospheric river associated with it which contained a deep fetch of moisture of tropical origin resulting in widespread moderate to heavy precipitation across the area with the snow level ranging between 7000 and 8000 feet for much of the event. Several stations above 8000 feet picked up 18 to 30 inches of new snowfall from this storm. Many stations in the Sierra Nevada picked up an inch and a half to three inches of liquid precipitation while the adjacent foothills picked up 1 to 2 inches of rain and the San Joaquin Valley received around a half inch to an inch from Fresno County northward and a quarter to a half inch further southward. This rainfall came on top of already saturated soils from the late December storms resulting in widespread nuisance flooding across the area. The Tehachapi Mountains generally picked up between a quarter to a half inch of rainfall while rain shadowing effect limited rainfall in the Kern County Deserts to a tenth of an inch or less at most stations. This system also produced very strong winds across much of the area with several stations in the Kern County Mountains and West Side hills measuring gusts in excess of 60 mph with several ridge top stations in Kern County reporting peak gusts in excess of 75 mph. Several reports of wind damage were received by WFO Hanford during this event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1063340. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.