High Wind — Sw S.j. Valley, California

2008-01-04 · Sw S.j. Valley, California

Wider weather episode

The first major winter storm of the new year arrived on the 4th, and brought heavy snow to the Southern Sierra Nevada, and rain to the San Joaquin Valley.

Very strong winds developed on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley with this storm, with gusts to 66 mph recorded at Kettleman Hills during the afternoon of January 4th. The strongest winds occurred in the town of Avenal in Kings County, where roofs were damaged, trees toppled and two glider planes lifted off the tarmac and flipped over at the local airport. Based on surveys of the sustained property damage, top winds were estimated at 70-75 mph. This high wind event was caused by an increase in local winds due to a combination of strong large-scale winds (synoptic winds due to the Pacific storm pattern) and the interaction of the nearby Coastal Mountain range, which likely involved a mountain range-induced cloud called a rotar cloud. Two direct injuries also occurred in Avenal during the wind event.

Elsewhere across the central and southern San Joaquin Valley, wind gusts of 45 to 50 mph were common on the 4th. Strong winds also occurred in the Foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the Kern County Desert. Strong winds are fairly uncommon in the foothills, and during this event, wind gusts were measured to 45 mph at Shadequarter, and 69 mph at Miami in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. More common are strong winds in the Kern County Desert, nonetheless gusts to 69 mph were recorded at Indian Wells Canyon. Strong winds were also common across the Southern Sierra Nevada and the Tehachapi Mountains. Peak winds up to 100 mph likely occurred at the crest of the Southern Sierra Nevada, however weather observations confirming those values were not available due to the scarcity of data in the highest elevations.

This winter storm event was actually a double-barrel system, as the second major storm arrived on the heels of the first one. This second storm originated over Siberia, and brought a very cold airmass to central California on the 5th and 6th. Snow fell down to 3000 feet, into the upper Sierra foothills. Total snow accumulations in the Southern Sierra Nevada for the two major storms ranged from nearly 9 feet in the high country near Yosemite National Park, to 5 feet in the Tulare County mountains. Further south, as much as one foot of new snow fell at Frazier Park in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 79407. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.