Flood — Kern, California

2010-12-19 to 2010-12-21 · near (bfl)meadows Field Ap, Kern, California

Event narrative

At 1235 PST on the 19th local officials reported widespread flooding on many city streets in Bakersfield and around Kern County. At 1205 PST on the 20th the CHP reported large rock slides on CA Highway 178 have closed the Kern Canyon Road that connects Bakersfield and Lake Isabella. At 1600 PST on the 20th Local officials reported the city drainage infrastructure in Bakersfield was overwhelmed and backing up in some areas. Several city streets were flooded and closed with deep water.

Wider weather episode

The first in a series of low pressure systems, rotating around an upper level low pressure system centered off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, moved through the central California interior, during the night of the 16th into the 17th, bringing copious amounts of moisture to the area. By the evening of the 17th, many locations in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley received from a half inch to over one inch of rain. Locations in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills received up to 3 inches of rain over a 24 hour period. During the evening of the 17th into the early morning hours of the 18th, local roadway flooding, mudslides, and rockslides were reported in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley from Bakersfield northward, in the

mountain areas of Kern County, and in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills.

There was a break in the weather during most of the day of December 18th, but the next storm arrived during the late afternoon and continued overnight and into the next day. By the time midnight arrived, Bakersfield had recorded a record 1.37 inch of rain. Even more rain fell the next day at Meadows Field, shattering rainfall records. Below is the Record Event Report summarizing the records from the six-day series of storms:

...Summary of precipitation and temperature records at Bakersfield And Fresno during the December 17-22 series of storms...

A series of strong pacific storms moved into central and southern California beginning December 17th and continuing through the 22nd. Bakersfield shattered several precipitation records during this Period...as well as setting a record high minimum temperature on The 19th. Fresno set a record high minimum temperature on December

18th...and had record rainfall the next day.

Bakersfield...

18th...record rainfall for the date of 1.37 inch. The old record was 0.30 inch...set in 1921. 19th...record rainfall for the date of 1.53 inch. The old record was 0.48 inch...set in 1984. This also was the wettest day on Record for december at bakersfield. The previous wettest day In december was december 27th 1936...with 1.02 inch of rain. 18-19th...the 24-hour rainfall of 2.31 inches was the highest 24-hour Rainfall on record for december. The previous record was 1.15 Inch...set on december 3-4th 1914. This also was the 3rd Highest 24-hour rainfall on record for bakersfield after February 9-10th 1978 3.02 inches and January 24-25th 1999

2.32 inches. 19th...record high minimum temperature for the date of 55 degrees.

The old record was 53 degrees...set in 1981. 20th...the rainfall for the date at meadows field was 0.85 inch. This was only 0.01 inch shy of the record rainfall for the

Date of 0.86 inch...set in 1943. The rainfall at Meadows Field...Bakersfield for December through The 22nd was 4.95 inches. This broke the record for the wettest

December on record...surpassing the previous wettest December... 2.98 inches for December 1931. December 2010 also is the 2nd wettest Month on record for Bakersfield ...after February 1998 with 5.36 inches of rain.

Fresno...17th...record rainfall for the date of 1.12 inch. The old record was

1.10 inch...set in 1977. 18th...record high minimum temperature for the date of 52 degrees. The old record was 51 degrees...set in 1894. 19th...record rainfall for the date of 0.90 inch. The old record was 0.69 inch...set in 1952.

Snowfall in the southern Sierra Nevada was in measured in feet, with total new snow

accumulations reaching around 15 feet at Wet Meadow and Crabtree Meadow. There were numerous reports of flooding in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills and on the central and southern San Joaquin Valley floor, as runoff from the heavy rains overwhelmed drainage systems.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4300, -119.0500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 275823. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.