Heavy Rain — Kings, California

2014-03-26 · near Shirley, Kings, California

Event narrative

Off duty NWS Meteorologist reported 0.44 inches of rainfall in only 15 minutes.

Wider weather episode

Warm, dry weather continued until March 25th. In fact, on the 24th, a record high maximum temperature of 85 degrees was reached in Fresno, which broke the previous record high of 83 degrees set back in 1930. On the 25th, a developing low approached the coast. While the approaching storm did bring some cooling to the central California interior on the 25th, temperatures were still several degrees above normal.

The storm brought showers, thunderstorms and strong winds to the central California interior on March 26th. Hail up to a quarter-inch in diameter fell during a thunderstorm at Ballico in Merced County, and in Coarsegold in the foothills of Madera County.

Winds gusted to 76 mph at Inyokern producing areas of near-zero visibility in blowing dust that closed Highways 178 and 14 and U.S. Highway 395. Wind reports in the nearby mountains only a few miles west of Inyokern gusted to 102 mph at 16:26 PST at the Indian Wells Canyon RAWS weather station.

Nine inches of snow fell at Camp Nelson in the Southern Sierra Nevada, 5 inches fell at Lodgepole, and nearly 6 inches was reported at Grant Grove. Further north, up to a foot of new snow fell on the high country of the Southern Sierra Nevada from Kings Canyon to Yosemite National Park.

Temperatures fell as the cold airmass moved into the central California interior. The high at Fresno on March 26th was only 62 degrees, down 16 degrees from the previous day. This also was the first day that the high temperature was below normal for the month. Bakersfield reached 67 degrees, for its second day in March when the high was below normal (the first day being March 7th).

With available surface moisture, the morning of March 27th saw the return of Tule fog to the region. Fog developed initially near Porterville and spread westward to Tulare and Visalia by daybreak. In the central San Joaquin Valley, clearing skies allowed temperatures to recover from the previous day. Fresno matched both its normal high and low. Further south, clouds pooled over the south end of the San Joaquin Valley and were slow to dissipate. Bakersfield was only one degree warmer than the previous day, and the high was below normal for the second consecutive day.

Winds gusted to 45-50 mph over the mountains and desert areas of Kern County on March 27th, but diminished during the evening hours. Warm and dry weather returned to the region on March 28th, but this proved to be short-lived, as the pattern finally shifted to a wetter regime and another storm reached the area late on March 29th and the early morning hours of the 30th. Rainfall from this storm mostly was between a third and two-thirds of an inch, although training showers in the slow-moving front gave Chowchilla 1.57 inch of rain. Bakersfield received 0.25 inch of rain during the morning of March 30th, only 0.03 inch short of the record for the date of 0.28 inch, set in 1946. New snowfall reports included an estimated 10-11 inches from the SNOTEL sites in the Southern Sierra Nevada high country. Lodgepole reported 7 inches of new snow, and Camp Nelson had 4 inches.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.3800, -119.6500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 509456. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.