High Wind — Southern Sacramento Valley, California

2023-01-07 to 2023-01-08 · Southern Sacramento Valley, California

Event narrative

There were high winds around midnight for the Sacramento metro area, bringing numerous reports of damage. There were widespread downed trees, power lines, and power outages. McClellan Airfield measured a 68 mph gust with an anemometer at 11:35 AM. Sacramento International Airport measured a 63 mph gust with an anemometer at 00:15 AM and a 73 mph gust at 00:53 AM. Sacramento Executive Airport measured a 63 mph gust with an anemometer at 00:15 AM.

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm brought strong winds with moderate to heavy rain bringing renewed flooding of already elevated waterways. There was flooding of roadways, urban areas, rivers, streams and creeks, with rockslides and mudslides also reported. There were dangerous mountain travel conditions with snow levels around 4000 feet and 3 to 5 feet of storm total snowfall above 6000 feet. Winds gusted up to 60-70 mph in the Central Valley. In the mountains there were gusts up to 80 to 115 mph, which coupled with heavy snow, brought whiteout conditions. There were widespread trees down across the area, blocking roads and causing numerous power outages. There were thunderstorms on the 10th with a tornado in Calaveras County and straight line wind damage and small hail reported in the northern San Joaquin Valley.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1078930. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.