Heavy Snow — North Kings River, California

2019-05-18 to 2019-05-19 · North Kings River, California

Event narrative

The Volcanic Knob SNOTEL (10050 feet) picked up an estimated 12.0 inches of new snowfall.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level low pressure system moved into central California during the afternoon of May 18. A cold front associated with this system pushed across the area overnight bringing periods of moderate to locally heavy precipitation to the area with much of the area picking up between 0.75 and 2 inches of liquid precipitation. As a result, many long standing daily rainfall records were shattered on both May 18 and on May 19. The precipitation mainly fell as snow above 6000 feet, and brought an additional 8 to 14 inches of snow to much of the higher Sierra Nevada range from Yosemite Park southward. Thunderstorms broke out across the San Joaquin Valley in the unstable post-frontal airmass during the afternoon of May 19. There were several reports of small hail and locally heavy rainfall from areas impacted by these thunderstorms. One strong cell produced a small EF0 tornado near Huron as well as some wind damage.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 814187. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.