Heavy Snow — Central Sierra, California

2019-12-07 to 2019-12-08 · Central Sierra, California

Event narrative

The Agnew Pass SNOTEL (9450 feet) picked up an estimated 19 inches of new snow.

Wider weather episode

An upper trough slowly moved across California during the weekend of December 7 and 8 producing widespread precipitation across the area. The heaviest precipitation occurred from Fresno County northward where several stations in the Sierra measured between 1 and 2 inches of liquid precipitation while several stations in the valley measured between a half inch and an inch of rainfall. Further south, much of Kings and Tulare Counties picked up between a quarter inch and a half inch of precipitation and most stations in Kern County picking up less than a quarter inch of rainfall. The snow level ranged between 7000 and 8000 feet for most of this event with several locations in the higher Sierra picking up between 8 ans 12 inches of new snowfall over the weekend. In addition the rain and mountain snowfall, scattered thunderstorms produced some areas of locally heavy rainfall, roadway flooding and small hail from the late morning the early evening of December 8. The precipitation ended by late evening as the trough moved to the east of the area.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 859417. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.