High Wind — Coalinga - Avenal, California

2023-01-16 · Coalinga - Avenal, California

Event narrative

The Kettleman Hills RAWS measured a peak wind gust of 69 mph.

Wider weather episode

The strong storm that brought widespread precipitation and additional flooding to the area on January 14 was followed by another storm which moved through the area between the afternoon of January 15 and the afternoon of January 16. While precipitation amounts from this storm were significantly less across most of the area than with the previous two storms which impacted the area over the previous week, this system produced a period of damaging wind gusts in the San Joaquin Valley during the morning of January 16 as the cold front from this system pushed through the area. There were several reports of wind gusts exceeding 40 mph in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra foothills and wind gusts exceeding 60 mph in the Tehachapi Mountains and the West Side Hills. The strong winds resulted in numerous power outages as power poles and power lines were toppled as well as road closures as the winds brought trees down across roads. Some more flooding occurred in the area as a result of additional rainfall on soil which had been heavily saturated by previous recent storms. The winds did taper off by the afternoon of January 16, but the precipitation was very slow to taper off as the storm didn't completely move out of the area until January 17.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1065806. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.