Heavy Rain in California, May 2 to 5, 1998

Name: Heavy Rain in California, May 2 to 5, 1998
Start: 1998-05-02T12:00
End: 1998-05-05T20:00
Location: California

May 2 to 5, 1998 · NWS HNX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

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

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: $200,000
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.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Rain, Fresno

When: May 2, 12:00 PM PST to May 5, 8:00 PM PST
Where: Fresno County, Firebaugh
Crop damage: $200,000
Coordinates: 36.758, -119.649 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Above normal rain at start of the May continued to plague the Central California multi-billion dollar ag industry. Rainfall as measured at Fresno and Bakersfield totalled close to an inch from 5/2 through 5/5. In the vicinity of the west valley town of Firebaugh, unofficial reports put 3" of rainfall on still near-saturated soils thereby continue to hamper agricultural field operations for not only Fresno County...but all of the Central Valley ag areas in Merced, Madera, Kings, Tulare, and Kern Counties.

What these are

Heavy Rain: Rainfall totals unusual for the place and season that did not produce a flood.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in California in 1998 Every state in 1998 This day in weather history Warnings in California, May 1998

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 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5636134.