Name: Winter Storm and Flood in California, January 7 to 10, 2005
Start: 2005-01-07T04:00
End: 2005-01-10T18:00
Location: California

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 4

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS HNX wrote it up.

Snow continued to accumulate at the higher elevations of the Southern Sierra Nevada, Tulare County Mountains, and the Kern Mountains from the 7th into the 11th: 18 inches of new snow at Tuolumne Meadows in the Southern Sierra Nevada and 19" of new snow at Wet Meadows in the Tulare County Mountains in 24 hours from the 7th to the 8th. A fatality occurred near Kernville as a hiker succumbed to hypothermia. The series of storms systems continuing through the 11th brought impressive snow totals in the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tulare Mountains: 108" at Ostrander Lake, West Woodchuck Meadow, and Pascoes; 103" in at Upper Burnt Corral; 152" at Farewell Gap; and 123" at Wet Meadow. In the Kern Mountains additional new snow of 8" accumulated in Tehachapi Valley. Stream flooding with some secondary road flooding occurred in the Kern County Mountains west of Frazier Park (near Lockwood Valley) on the 9th and early on the 10th. The precipitation totals during this time period combined with above normal precipitation for October and December brought the seasonal snowpack in the Sierra to 101% of the yearly normal or 245% of the mid-January normal.

What forecasters said that day

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 Jan 6, 9:39 PM PST, 6 hours 21 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 6, 9:39 PM PST, 6 hours 21 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jan 6, 4:41 PM PST, 11 hours 19 minutes before

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The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

3 winter storm, 1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Storm, S Sierra Mtns

When: January 7, 4:00 AM PST to January 10, 6:00 PM PST
Where: S Sierra Mtns forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Winter Storm, Tulare Cty Mtns

When: January 7, 4:00 AM PST to January 10, 6:00 PM PST
Where: Tulare Cty Mtns forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Winter Storm, Kern Cty Mtns

When: January 7, 6:00 AM PST to January 8, 11:00 PM PST
Where: Kern Cty Mtns forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Flood, Kern Cty Mtns

When: January 9, 8:12 AM PST to January 10, 9:00 AM PST
Where: Kern Cty Mtns forecast zone
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 38.350, -121.950

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
Winter Storm, Kern Cty Mtns	2005-01-07	73	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Winter Storm: A storm that brought snow, sleet or freezing rain at warning levels, usually over several hours or days.
Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in California in 2005 Every state in 2005 This day in weather history Warnings in California, January 2005

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: 5438255, 5438256, 5438309, 5438310.