Strong Wind — San Bernardino County Mountains, California

2025-12-24 · San Bernardino County Mountains, California

Event narrative

Large rockslide covering both sides of a mountain highway. Wind gusts in the area were around 50-65 mph. Rockslides appears to have been triggered by strong winds as only light precipitation had occurred in the area prior.

Wider weather episode

A very strong area of low pressure, tapped into an atmospheric river driving up subtropical moisture, produced substantial rainfall across southern California. This led to some areas within the San Bernardino mountains receiving well over a foot of total rain on Christmas Eve, and resulted in significant flooding for the city of Wrightwood. There also road closures due to debris flow along Highway 2.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1306535. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.