Winter Storm and Strong Wind in California, March 30 to 31, 2010

March ended with a late-season storm moving through interior central California. Ahead of the storm, temperatures warmed to several degrees above normal, and Fresno finally hit 80 on March 28th, the first time this year. The storm moved into northern California on the 29th, and slowly sagged southward on the 30th. A weak pre-frontal boundary did move south over the central San Joaquin Valley during the afternoon and evening of the 29th, triggering brief gusts to 25-30 mph.

Light rain and mountain snow spread into the northern part of the region during the morning of March 30th, but the main energy of the storm did not arrive until the next day. Rainfall amounts in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley generally were less than two tenths of an inch. However, there were reports of hail up to a half-inch in diameter as weak thunderstorms moved over the east side and south end of the San Joaquin Valley, and a funnel cloud was photographed northeast of the city of Fresno. Two-day snow totals of up to 21 inches were reported in the high country of the Southern Sierra Nevada. In the Kern County Mountains, gusts to 75 mph were measured, while gusts over 50 mph were observed in the Kern County deserts.

Despite a wet start to March which saw Fresno receive 0.62 inch of rain in 3 days (March 2nd-4th) rainfall tapered off sharply for the remainder of the month. Fresno had a monthly total of 0.96 inch, only 43.6 percent of the normal for March of 2.20 inches. Bakersfield fared even worse, with a total of only 0.25 inch for March. This was a mere 17.7 percent of the monthly normal of 1.41 inch. Even so, the rain season through March 31st was almost exactly normal for both cities (100.2 percent for Bakersfield; 101.1 percent for Fresno), due to above normal rainfalls during December through February (except near normal for Fresno in January).