High Wind — Central Sierra Foothills, California

2020-03-01 · Central Sierra Foothills, California

Event narrative

A personal weather station at Cascadel Heights measured a peak wind gust of 83 mph.

Wider weather episode

A cold upper low pressure system dropped southward off the California coast on March 1 bringing some mountain showers to the area. Several stations in the Sierra Nevada picked up between a tenth and a quarter of an inch of liquid precipitation while the adjacent foothills and Tehachapi Mountains picked up up to a tenth of an inch of liquid precipitation. The snow level lowered to near 3000 feet during the evening of March 1 and several stations in the mountains picked up between 1 and 3 inches of new snowfall. Pine Mountain Club measured four inches of snow and the roads in the area were briefly closed down. California Highway Patrol also paced traffic on Interstate 5 in the Grapevine and Tejon Pass areas due to black ice. Behind the trough axis after it pushed through during the evening, gusty northeast winds developed over the Sierra Nevada with several reports of gusts between 35 and 45 mph. One weather station 2 miles east of North Fork reported a peak gust of 83 mph. Gusty northerly winds also developed over the Kern County Deserts where there were also several reports of gusts between 35 and 45 mph, and a few low impact indicator sites measuring gusts above 60 mph. The winds remained gusty at times through the afternoon of March 2 then diminished during the evening.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 870851. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.