Heavy Snow in California, September 18 to 19, 1997

Name: Heavy Snow in California, September 18 to 19, 1997
Start: 1997-09-18T18:00
End: 1997-09-19T12:00
Location: California

September 18 to 19, 1997 · NWS HNX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 heavy snow, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, E Fresno/Madera T Sw/Mariposa/Se Tuolumne

When: September 18, 6:00 PM PST to September 19, 12:00 PM PST
Where: E Fresno/Madera T Sw/Mariposa/Se Tuolumne forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect

A hiker died of hypothermia after being caught in the a snowstorm in Fresno County portion of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. The base camp was at the 12000 foot elevation west of Bishop (Inyo County). The hiker and a friend were unprepared for winter-like weather. Their sleeping bags and gear got wet in the storm. The hiker dies in the Inyo County hospital at 1:30 PM PST on Friday the 19th.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Heavy Snow, E Fresno/Madera T Sw/Mariposa/Se Tuolumne	1997-09-19	63	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in California in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history Warnings in California, September 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5617427.