Heavy Snow — North Kings River, California

2021-03-09 to 2021-03-11 · North Kings River, California

Event narrative

The Upper Providence SNOTEL (5611 feet) picked up an estimated 17.5 inches of new snow.

Wider weather episode

A slow moving cold upper low pressure system which had originated in the Gulf of Alaska that was off the Pacific Northwest coast during the morning of March 9 dropped southeast into northwest California on March 10 and dropped further southeast into central California on March 11. This system did produce a period of moderate to locally heavy snowfall between the evening of March 9 and the early morning of March 11 over the Sierra Nevada as well as the adjacent foothills where snow levels lowered to near 2500 feet. Much of the mountains and foothills received a half inch to an inch of liquid precipitation from this system. Most stations above 7000 feet picked up between 12 to 18 inches of new snowfall while 5 to 10 inches of snow fell at many locations in between 3000 and 7000 feet. Only a few inches of snow fell in the Tehachapi Mountains, but travel was briefly impacted on Interstate 5 over the Tejon Pass and State Route 58 in thye Tehachapi area due to black ice during the morning of March 11. Much of the San Joaquin Valley picked up between a quarter inch and a half inch of rainfall while rain shadowing limited much of the Kern County Deserts to a tenth of an inch or less. Several strong thunderstorms developed in the San Joaquin Valley during the afternoon of March 10 producing heavy rainfall and pea sized hail. A funnel cloud was briefly observed near Hanford with one of the strong thunderstorms. The low finally moved east of the area on March 12 leaving a cool airmass over the area as it moved out.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 937247. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.