Flood — Mariposa, California

2023-02-05 · near Briceburg, Mariposa, California

Event narrative

California Highway Patrol reported a tree and large rocks washed up in the roadway on SR 140 and the Ferguson Slide Bridge.

Wider weather episode

A fairly strong upper low pressure system moved eastward across northern California on February 5 with precipitation from this system extending southward into central California between the evening of February 4 and the evening of February 5. This system brought 0.75 to 1.5 inches of liquid precipitation to the Sierra Nevada with the snow level running around 6500 feet during the evening of February 4 lowering to around 4000 feet by time the precipitation tapered off during the evening of February 5. SNOTEL estimates indicated between 9 and 15 inches of new snow fell above 6500 feet from Fresno County northward. Between 0.25 to 0.75 inches of rain fell in the Sierra foothills and 0.10 to 0.25 inches of rain fell in the San Joaquin Valley. Precipitation in the Tehachapi Mountains varied due to the showery nature of the precipitation by the time it arrived in Kern County, but many stations picked up between 1 and 3 tenths of an inch of liquid precipitation. Traffic was paced along Interstate 5 by the evening a February 5 as light snow began to accumulate along the Tejon Pass. This system also brought some strong wind gusts to the Mohave Desert slopes with several stations reporting gusts exceeding 45 mph and a few low impact indicator sites briefly measuring gusts above 60 mph. As the colder post-frontal airmass pushed into the area during the afternoon of February 5, scattered thunderstorms broke out over the San Joaquin Valley with a few reports of trees being knocked down by strong thunderstorm wind gusts and pea sized hail being reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6053, -119.9653)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1069121. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.