Heavy Snow — Upper San Joaquin River, California

2024-11-25 to 2024-11-26 · Upper San Joaquin River, California

Event narrative

Devil's Postpile (8004 feet) picked up an estimated 22 inches of new snow. Green Mountain (7900 feet) picked up an estimated 19 inches of new snow. Chilkoot Meadow (7150 feet) picked up an estimated 14 inches of new snow. Graveyard Meadows (6897 feet) picked up an estimated 15 inches of new snow.

Wider weather episode

A large upper low pressure system which had remained nearly stationary off the Pacific Northwest coast for several days moved inland across the Pacific Northwest on November 26. This low pulled up a surge of deep moisture into central California between the evening of November 25 and the evening of November 26. This atmospheric river type system brought moderate to locally heavy precipitation to much of the area with most of the San Joaquin Valley picking up between 0.75 and 1.50 inches of rainfall. Most of the Sierra Foothills and the Kern River Valley picked up between 1 and 3 inches of rainfall while the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada picked up between 2 and 4 inches of liquid precipitation with several SNOTELs above 7000 feet picking up an estimated 1 to 3 feet of new snow. The Tehachapi Mountains generally picked up between a quarter to a half inch of rainfall while rain shadowing limited precipitation in the Kern County Desert areas. Several reports of nuisance flooding were reported by law enforcement in Fresno, Tulare and Kern Counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1218951. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.