1 winter storm, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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 local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Hanford, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 16, 8:10 PM PST, 3 hours 50 minutes earlier.
INTERIOR CENTRAL CALIFORNIA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CA
910 PM PDT TUE APR 16 2002
COLD FRONT AND ASSOCIATED UPPER LEVEL TROUGH BARRELING SOUTHWARD
THIS EVENING. IN ADVANCE OF THIS SYSTEM...CLOUDS AND WIND HAVE
BEEN ON THE INCREASE ACROSS CENTRAL CA...AND PRECIP...AT LEAST
ACROSS THE NORTHERN HALF OF OUR CWA...IS NOT FAR BEHIND.
COMPOSITE RADAR IMAGERY SHOWS LEADING EDGE OF PRECIP MOVING INTO
THE NORTHERN SJ VLY AT THIS TIME AND DEVELOPING OVER THE HIGHER
ELEVATIONS OF MARIPOSA COUNTY. THE 00Z MODELS ARE HANDLING THIS
SYSTEM MORE AGGRESSIVELY THAN PREVIOUS RUNS BY BRINGING DYNAMICS
FARTHER SOUTH AND MORE IN LINE WITH THE OLDER AVN SOLUTION. THE
MESO-ETA IN PARTICULAR...FORECASTS AN OMEGA BULLSEYE OF 20
MICROBARS/SEC OVER THE HIER ELEVATIONS OF FRESNO CO BY 12Z WED.
NONETHELESS...THE DYNAMICS APPEAR TO BE COMING TOGETHER FOR A
HEALTHY PRECIP EVENT IN THE SIERNEV...ESP NORTH OF KINGS CANYON.
THIS WILL BE THE FOCAL POINT LATER TONIGHT AND WED MORNING WHERE
THE CORE OF THE UPPER LEVEL JET (100+ KT)...COUPLED WITH A STRONG
VORT MAX...BRING ADDED LIFT AND ENHANCED OROGRAPHIC PRECIP.(PERHAPS
EVEN ISOLD TSTMS) MODEL QPF COMPARISONS BETWEEN 12Z AND 00Z CLEARLY
INDICATE AN INCREASED TREND. IN LIGHT OF UNUSUALLY LOW SNOW LEVELS
FOR SO LATE IN THE SEASON...HAVE DECIDED TO LAUNCH A WINTER STORM
WARNING FOR LATER TONIGHT AND WED MORNING IN ZONE 96.
WHILE MUCH OF THE PRECIP WITH THIS SYSTEM WILL BE OROGRAPHICALLY
INDUCED...IT APPEARS THAT THE CENTRAL SJ VLY WILL BE CLOSE ENOUGH
TO THE (VORT)MAX TRACK TO GENERATE SHOWERS LATER TONIGHT. BASED ON
MODEL TRENDS DESCRIBED ABOVE...WILL BUMP UP FIRST PERIOD POPS IN
ZONES 89 AND 90. IN ADDITION...SELECT RAWS SITES OVER THE HIGHER
ELEVATIONS ARE ALREADY REPORTING WIND GUSTS AROUND 40 MPH. WITH
WINDS FORECAST TO INCREASE TONIGHT...WILL ISSUE A WIND ADVISORY
FOR THE TULARE CO MTNS AND THE KERN CO MTNS AND DESERT FOR TONIGHT
INTO WED MORNING. WINDS ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE SJ VLY ARE ALREADY
GUSTING TO 35 MPH AT THE RAWS STATIONS IN LOS BANOS AND KETTLEMAN
HILLS...SO WILL ISSUE WIND ADVISORY FOR ZONES 89 AND 91 FOR
TONIGHT AND WED MORNING.
BEYOND WEDNESDAY...AND AT LEAST THROUGH FRIDAY...TEMPERATURES ACROSS
THE CWA WILL AVERAGE SLIGHTLY TO MUCH BELOW NORMAL AS BROAD UPPER
LEVEL LOW SETTLES SOUTHWARD OVER THE GREAT BASIN AND BACKS INTO
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. CURRENT FORECAST PKG HANDLES THIS PRETTY WELL.
.HNX...WINTER STORM WARNING TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING
FOR THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON.
...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 900 AM WEDNESDAY FOR THE TULARE COUNTY
MOUNTAINS AND THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND DESERT.
...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 900 AM WEDNESDAY FOR THE WEST SIDE OF THE
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY.
DURFEE1 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
An early morning frontal passage brought significant snow to the higher elevations of the Southern Sierra Nevada in just a few hours. Tuolumne Meadows at 9200' M.S.L. received 12" of new snow, and West Woodchuck Meadow at 9100' had 8".
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in California, April 2002
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: 5289862.