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

2023-02-24 · West Side Mountains South of Highway 198, California

Event narrative

The Southern California Edison station at Las Yeguas measured a peak wind gust of 65 mph.

Wider weather episode

A large cold upper low pressure system dropped slowly southward off the California coast on February 24 and 25. This system brought 1.5 to 3 inches of liquid precipitation between the early morning of February 24 and the late morning of February 25 to the Sierra Nevada and adjacent foothills as well as to the Tehachapi Mountains and the San Joaquin Valley. This was a cold storm with snow levels lowering from around 3000 feet during the morning of February 24 lowering to 1500 to 2000 feet during the morning of February 25 with some locations near 1000 feet picking up some light snowfall while higher elevations generally picked up between 2 and 4 feet of new snowfall. The snowfall resulted in several mountain roads being closed for extended periods of time. In addition several reports of flooding were observed in the San Joaquin Valley and the lower Sierra foothills resulting in additional road closures. The low moved across southern California during the evening of February 25 and east of the area during the morning of February 26.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1072336. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.