Dust Storm — Merced-madera-mendota, California

2024-11-11 · Merced-madera-mendota, California

Event narrative

California Highway Patrol reported a 20 vehicle collision which led to several injuries on SR 152 at the intersection of Road 17 near Chowchilla as a dust storm pushed through the area. The Merced and Madera ASOS's both had visibility drop to 1.5 to 1.75 miles and had gusts between 40 and 50 mph. The portion of SR 152 south of Chowchilla was closed for a portion of the afternoon due to the collision.

Wider weather episode

An upper low pressure center moved eastward across northern California on November 11. A cold front that was associated with the upper low pushed southward through central California during the afternoon and evening producing widespread wind gusts above 45 mph as well as areas of blowing dust reducing visibility to near zero in the San Joaquin Valley. The dust resulted in a 20 vehicle accident near Chowchilla which led to SR 152 being closed for much of the afternoon. Many stations measured between a quarter and a half inch of rainfall with this system with several stations in the Sierra Nevada picking up between a quarter and a half inch of liquid precipitation. The precipitation mainly fell as snow above 7000 feet with several stations in the higher Sierra Nevada picking up between 2 and 5 inches of new snowfall. The precipitation ended during the evening of November 11 and winds diminished during the early morning of November 12.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1216313. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.