Heavy Snow — Tulare Cty Mtns, California

2018-11-21 to 2018-11-22 · Tulare Cty Mtns, California

Event narrative

The Crabtree Meadow SNOTEL (10700 feet) picked up an estimated 11 inches of new snowfall.

Wider weather episode

After a significant dry period of 45 straight dry days across most of the central California interior. A low pressure system pushed inland over northern California on November 21 and brought a period of generally light to moderate precipitation to the area from the afternoon of November 21 through the morning of November 22 as an associated cold front pushed southward through central California. The precipitation fell mainly in the form of snow above 7000 feet resulting in this system being the first significant winter storm of the season for the higher elevations of the Southern Sierra Nevada where 8 to 16 inches of snow fell. Much of the San Joaquin Valley picked up between a quarter to three quarters of an inch of an inch of rainfall after going totally dry for a month and a half. There were several reports of nuisance flooding although damage was minimal.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 786277. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.