Heavy Snow — Sequoia Kings, California

2019-05-18 to 2019-05-19 · Sequoia Kings, California

Event narrative

The Pascoes SNOTEL (9153 feet) picked up an estimated 9.0 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 814189. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.