1 funnel cloud, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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.
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 Aug 20, 2:29 PM PST, 2 hours 58 minutes earlier.
INTERIOR CENTRAL CALIFORNIA FORECAST DISCUSSION...RETRANSMIT ONLY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CA 200 PM PDT WED AUG 20 2003 KHNX 88D INDICATING CONVECTION BEGINNING NEAR THE SIERRA CREST. 18Z MESO IS STRONGER WITH CAPES OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND KERN DESERTS THAN PREVIOUS MODEL RUNS. INSTABILITY IS ALSO MORE PRONOUNCED WITH THE 18Z MESO AS LI/S ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS AND KERN DESERTS ARE PROGGED TO BE IN THE -1 TO -4 RANGE. THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ALREADY BEEN GOING ON FOR THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS OVER SOUTHERN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY...AND WV LOOP INDICATING ADDITIONAL MOISTURE IS ON IT/S WAY FROM THE SOUTHEAST...SO WILL KEEP MENTION OF ISOLATED TO SCATTERED T-STORMS ACROSS THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS FOR TONIGHT. THE OFFSHORE CUTOFF LOW WHICH HAS BEEN OUR MAIN WEATHER FEATURE...HAS ACTUALLY BEEN RETROGRADING TODAY...WHICH IS NOTHING NEW AS THE 12Z AND 18Z MESO... AS WELL AS THE 12Z GFS...HAVE BEEN INDICATING THIS HAPPENING. THE LOW IS EXPECTED TO MAKE AN EASTWARD TURN THURSDAY AS IT GETS SCOOPED UP BY AN OPEN WAVE TROUGH WHICH WILL TURN THE UPPER FLOW OVER CENTRAL CA TO THE SOUTH THEN TO THE SOUTHWEST. THE TIMING OF THIS TAKING PLACE WILL BE CRITICAL IN TERMS OF CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT THURSDAY. AT THIS TIME WITH CONFIDENCE LOW...WILL KEEP MENTION OF ISOLATED TO SCATTERED POPS ACROSS THE ENTIRE CWFA THURSDAY...IN CASE OF A SLOWER TIMING. TEMPERATURES THURSDAY WILL BE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON THE AMOUNT OF CLOUD COVER THAT SPREADS ACROSS THE AREA. COMPROMISED BETWEEN MET AND MAV TEMPERATURE GUIDANCE. AS THE TROUGH SWINGS BY ACROSS NORCAL FRIDAY... EXPECT SURFACE P-GRADS TO STRENGTHEN ENOUGH TO ALLOW FOR SOME MARINE AIR TO SPILL INTO THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. MEANWHILE...HIGHER ELEVATIONS WILL BEGIN TO WARM UP AS SKIES CLEAR OUT. HIGH PRESSURE IS EXPECTED TO BUILD INTO CENTRAL CA FROM THE DESERTS SOUTHWEST FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY FOR MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES AND A DRYING TREND. IN THE EXTENDED-FORECAST PERIOD...SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY...THE MEDIUM-RANGE MODELS ARE IN GENERAL AGREEMENT WITH A WEAK SHORT-WAVE TROUGH MOVING INTO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST EARLY NEXT WEEK...ALTHOUGH THERE ARE MINOR TIMING DIFFERENCES. THE TROUGH WILL HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THE STRONG UPPER-LEVEL RIDGE OVER MUCH OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. 500-MB HEIGHTS ARE FORECAST TO REMAIN ABOVE 5880 METERS THROUGH THE PERIOD...WITH DRY WEATHER AND ABOVE-NORMAL HIGH TEMPERATURES. BY MIDWEEK...THE GFS HAS A STRONGER SHORT-WAVE TROUGH DROPPING OUT OF THE GULF OF ALASKA INTO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. THIS TROUGH IS FORECAST TO WEAKEN THE RIDGE FOR THE LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK. THE GFS FORECASTS SOME HIGH-LEVEL MOISTURE TO WRAP AROUND THE RIDGE INTO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEGINNING TUESDAY...SO HAVE INCREASED CLOUD COVER OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS FOR SOME CIRRUS PER NEIGHBORING OFFICES. .HNX...NONE. DS/SANGER
CAZ089>099-211230- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA 530 AM PDT WED AUG 20 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA INTERIOR. .DAY ONE...TODAY. THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON AND A SLIGHT CHANCE IN THE EVENING FOR THE SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON...FOR THE TULARE COUNTY MOUNTAINS...FOR THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND THE SOUTHEASTERN KERN COUNTY DESERT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ARE FORECAST...FOR THURSDAY FOR THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, THE FRESNO COUNTY AND TULARE COUNTY FOOTHILLS, THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND THE KERN COUNTY DESERT...THERE IS A CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS...FOR THURSDAY FOR THE SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON, THE TULARE COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND THE SOUTHEASTERN KERN COUNTY DESERT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS TO THEIR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
A trained spotter noted the wall cloud development on a monsoonal thunderstorm in the Kern Desert and subsequently observed the development and dissipation of the funnel south of Ridgecrest.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in California, August 2003
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: 5332499.