High Wind — Upper San Joaquin River, California

2024-10-18 · Upper San Joaquin River, California

Event narrative

The Mount Tom RAWS measured a peak wind gust of 65 mph.

Wider weather episode

An upper level trough moved into central California on October 16 bringing some light precipitation to the area between the afternoon of October 16 and the afternoon of October 17 along with a period of increased winds between the evening of October 16 and the morning of October 18. Precipitation amounts were fairly paltry with most of the area picking up trace amounts to a few hundredths of an inch although portions of Yosemite National Park picked up between a quarter and a half inch of liquid precipitation with the snow level running around 9000 feet. This system also produced strong wind gusts along the Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains as well as across the Mojave Desert Slopes in eastern Kern County. Several stations measured gusts in excess of 45 mph while a few low impact indicator stations measured gusts in excess of 60 mph.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1211179. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.