Winter Storm and Strong Wind in California, April 19 to 22, 2010

Another potent, cold Pacific storm reached central California during the late afternoon and evening of April 19th, bringing another round of moderate to locally heavy precipitation to the central California interior. The heaviest rain fell over much of the region on the 20th, but the low stalled over south central California the next day. This allowed an upper-level disturbance rotating around the low to bring another round of moderate precipitation to the area on April 21st.

A line of moderate showers pushed into the Tulare County foothills. 2.77 inches of rain fell at Milo during the 24 hours ending at midnight on April 20th, while 2.07 inches fell at Three Rivers during the same period. Lemon Cove had a storm total rainfall of 1.92 inches.| |Two inches of snow fell on Tehachapi during the early morning of April 21st, and snow was reported as low as 2400 feet near Springville in Tulare County, and near 2600 feet at Mountain Mesa in Kern County. Another 21 inches of new snow fell at Lodgepole, but this amount may have been the result of the line of showers that moved into Tulare County. Elsewhere in the Southern Sierra Nevada, estimated new snow accumulations mostly were in the 9 to 18 inch range, with a few higher amounts.

Small pea sized hail fell at Avenal during the afternoon of April 20th, with similarly sized hail fall in Lamont that evening. Winds in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley gusted as high as 45 mph, toppling trees and downing power lines. Winds gusted to around 55 mph in the Indian Wells Valley.

The low finally began moving east of the region on April 22nd, although a few residual showers remained over the central and southern San Joaquin Valley and the adjacent mountains. High pressure began building into California on the 23rd, with the high temperatures at both Bakersfield and Fresno up 12 degrees from the previous day. Temperatures continued to warm through April 26th, which was the warmest day of the month at both Bakersfield and Fresno with both cities reaching 85 degrees.