Flood — Mariposa, California

2023-02-24 · near Incline, Mariposa, California

Event narrative

California Highway Patrol reported mud, dirt and rocks blocking the eastbound lane of SR 140 near the intersection of Hites Mine Rd.

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6606, -119.8484)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1072354. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.