Flood — Kern County Mountains, California

1998-02-23 to 1998-02-25 · Kern County Mountains, California

Wider weather episode

Steady rainfall in the Tehachapi Mountains led to Cuddy Creek flowing strong and high damaging homes along its path in Lake-of-the-Woods in Southwest Kern County. Unofficial reports were received of 6" of rain in 3 days (21st/22nd/and 23rd) causing problems by the afternoon of the 23rd along Cuddy Creek. In the Lake Isabella area...Bodfish Creek and Clear Creek flooded the Caliente-Bodfish Road and Erskine Creek just above the town of Lake Isabella washed over one lane of Lake Isabella Blvd by 1730 PST on Monday evening, 2/23/98. In the Weldon and Onyx area east of Lake Isabella, Kelso Creek began to flow heavily on the 23rd. Just above Weldon 1.5" of rain was observed on 2/22, an additional 1.75" on the 23rd, and the snowmelt runoff/lag was observed as a time delay of 12 hours by Tuesday morning the 24th with 1600CFS of flow at Weldon. Highway 178 was closed due to runoff over the roadway between East Lake Isabella and Walker Pass for a brief time on the 23rd.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5639467. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.