A slow moving Pacific storm approached interior northern California through the weekend, bringing rain and snow showers, as well as thunderstorms that produced severe hail.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 episode as NWS STO wrote it up.
A slow moving Pacific storm approached interior northern California through the weekend, bringing rain and snow showers, as well as thunderstorms that produced severe hail.
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 Sacramento, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 29, 8:45 PM PST, 3 hours 10 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 945 PM PDT FRI MAR 29 2013 .SHORT TERM DISCUSSION... ISOLATED SHOWERS HAVE DIMINISHED OVER THE MTNS AS INSTABILITY HAS WEAKENED. MOIST SLY FLOW WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD HIGH CLOUDINESS OVER CWA TONITE BUT LARGE SCALE VERTICAL ASCENT WILL BE MINIMAL UNTIL SAT AFTERNOON WHEN THE FLOW BECOMES MORE CYCLONIC AND DIFFLUENT AS UPPER LOW CENTER MOVES TO 130W. BEST UPWARD MOTION LOOKS TO BE OVER THE NRN MTNS...COASTAL RANGE AND SIERNEV SAT AFTERNOON. JHM SATURDAY IS EXPECTED TO BE A VERY DIFFERENT DAY AS THE UPPER LOW APPROACHES THE COAST. GREATER CLOUD COVER AND A COOLER AIR MASS WILL DROP AFTERNOON HIGH TEMPERATURES SEVERAL DEGREES. SCATTERED SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE AREA. INSTABILITY WILL BE BEST OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS THERE. SOME RAIN SHOWERS ARE POSSIBLE IN THE VALLEY AS THE OUTER BANDS OF THE LOW MOVE ONSHORE BUT THERE IS A LOT OF LOW LEVEL DRY AIR FOR PRECIPITATION TO OVERCOME. RAINFALL AMOUNTS SHOULD BE RELATIVELY LIGHT. CAPE LEVELS AND LI'S ARE MARGINAL AT BEST SO HAVE REMOVED MENTION OF VALLEY THUNDERSTORMS. A MUCH BETTER CHANCE OF HEAVIER SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARRIVES ON SUNDAY AS COLDER AIR WITH THE LOW MOVES INLAND AND DESTABILIZES THE ATMOSPHERE. THE CORE OF THE UPPER LOW CURRENTLY IS 542 DM BUT WILL WEAKEN AND FILLS TO AROUND 560 DM BY THE TIME IT MOVES INLAND LATE SUNDAY. WITH 500 MB TEMPERATURES AROUND -23 C AND SOME HEATING THROUGH BREAKS IN THE CLOUDS THERE SHOULD BE DECENT INSTABILITY BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. THE 18Z GFS HAS A 1270 J/KG BULLSEYE CENTERED OVER SACRAMENTO BY LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON. LI'S IN THAT AREA ARE AROUND -2. SHEAR CURRENTLY LOOKS RELATIVELY WEAK AT THAT POINT THOUGH SO THIS SHOULD LIMIT THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRONG STORMS. PW LEVELS ARE AROUND 0.9 INCHES IN THAT AREA. MAIN THREAT SHOULD BE SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN AND SMALL HAIL POSSIBLE. THIS IS A RELATIVELY MILD SYSTEM SO MOST OF THE PRECIPITATION WILL BE IN THE FORM OF RAIN. IN THE HIGHER SIERRA (ABOVE 6500 FT) THERE COULD BE 2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW CAUSING SOME TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES AT DONNER PASS ON I80 AND ECHO SUMMIT ON HIGHWAY 50. TEMPERATURES COOL TO NEAR NORMAL LEVELS ON MONDAY. THE GFS IS QUICK TO PULL THE LOW EASTWARD...WHILE THE SLOWER ECMWF KEEPS IT OVER NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. WILL KEEP SOME SHOWERS OVER THE AREA EXCEPT FOR THE DELTA AND WESTERN SIDE OF THE SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY. JUST LINGERING SHOWERS OVER THE MOUNTAINS EXPECTED MONDAY NIGHT. EK .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY) UNDER BUILDING HIGH PRESSURE... THE REMNANTS OF THE WEEKEND STORM SYSTEM WILL BE OVER NEVADA EARLY NEXT WEEK. WRAPAROUND SHOWERS OVER THE SIERRA NEVADA FROM THIS SYSTEM ARE POSSIBLE ON TUESDAY BEFORE SHIFTING FURTHER EAST. THE RIDGE STRENGTHENS INTO MIDWEEK WITH TEMPERATURES REACHING THEIR APEX ON WEDNESDAY WITH VALLEY TEMPS IN THE MID 70S. MODEL CONFIDENCE DROPS OFF THURSDAY DUE TO TIMING DIFFERENCES WITH BRINGING IN A TROUGH. THE GFS BRINGS PRECIPITATION IN FROM THIS SYSTEM AS EARLY AS THURSDAY MORNING... WHERE AS THE ECMWF DELAYS THE ARRIVAL OF PRECIP INTO NORCAL UNTIL LATE THURSDAY INTO EARLY FRIDAY. VERY LOW MODEL TO MODEL CONSISTENCY MOVING INTO NEXT WEEKEND BUT EACH MODEL SHOWING SOME SORT OF MOIST WESTERLY FLOW OVER PORTIONS OF NORCAL. && .AVIATION... SWLY FLOW ALF BCMG SLY TNGT AS DP LOW PRES OFF THE CST APCHS CAL. MNLY VFR CONDS OVNGT THEN POSS LCL MVFR/IFR OMTNS SAT IN SHWRS. DTRTG CONDS OVR ALL OF INTR NORCAL SAT NGT INTO SUN. && .STO WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NONE. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 515 AM PDT FRI MAR 29 2013 CAZ013>019-063-064-066>069-301215- SHASTA LAKE AREA / NORTHERN SHASTA COUNTY- BURNEY BASIN / EASTERN SHASTA COUNTY-NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY-SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA-NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- MOUNTAINS SOUTHWESTERN SHASTA COUNTY TO NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY- CLEAR LAKE/SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY- NORTHEAST FOOTHILLS/SACRAMENTO VALLEY-MOTHERLODE- WESTERN PLUMAS COUNTY/LASSEN PARK- WEST SLOPE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA- 515 AM PDT FRI MAR 29 2013 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY A POTENTIAL FOR RAIN AND SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY WITH A POTENTIAL FOR THUNDERSTORMS. SOME OF THE THUNDERSTORMS COULD PRODUCE SMALL HAIL. THE WEEKEND REMAINS AS THE TIMEFRAME WITH THE BEST POTENTIAL. * SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT..SEE WWUS86 KSTO - SPSSTO FOR DETAILS * THE LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT (LOWER CASE): HTTP://WWW.WRH.NOAA.GOV/STO
The Sacramento radar (KDAX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 07:55 UTC.
2 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Thunderstorms developed in Northern San Joaquin Valley and moved into the Southern Sacramento Valley and Motherlode. At approximately 1:00 AM PDT, a severe thunderstorm moved through Pioneer and dropped quarter size hail. A citizen reported the hail size and image to KCRA media.
Severe thunderstorms were slow-moving toward the north at 15 mph, and produced copious amounts of hail. One spotter reported hail drifts up to 3 ft along their yard fence. Hail was still there the following day.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in California, March 2013
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: 439462, 439470.