Heavy Snow — Central Sierra Foothills, California

2019-11-27 to 2019-11-28 · Central Sierra Foothills, California

Event narrative

Public report 4N Oakhurst (2500 feet) of an estimated 10 inches of new snow.

Wider weather episode

A cold low pressure system dropped southeast out of the Gulf of Alaska on during the morning of November 26 and dropped southward to the Pacific Northwest coast by the afternoon of the 26th. The low continued to drop southward off the California coast during the morning of November 27 spreading widespread precipitation into central California which continued through the late morning of November 28 which being Thanksgiving Day the storm adversely impacted holiday travel as several major roads were impacted. As this system was a cold storm, snow levels were between 2000 and 2500 feet with widespread accumulating snow taking place across the southern Sierra foothills where many locations above 2500 feet picked up between 5 and 10 inches of snow and the Kern County Deserts where several which picked up between 3 and 8 inches at most locations. Much of the higher Sierra above 7000 feet picked up between 18 and 36 inches of new snow. Most of the San Joaquin Valley picked up between a quarter and half an inch of rain while a few locations which were impacted by thunderstorms picked up close to an inch of rainfall. The most noticeable impacts from this storm were closures of Interstate 5 between Grapevine and Tajon Pass and State Route 58 in the Tehachapi area due to heavy snowfall and several accidents. In addition to the widespread precipitation and low elevation snowfall, thunderstorms produced locally heavier rainfall and small hail across the San Joaquin Valley during the afternoon and early evenings of both days.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 858696. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.