A series of disturbances moved into Southern California on January 10 and 11, 2015, and brushed across Kern county and the Tulare county portion of the Sierra Nevada. Only light precipitation occurred on January 10, but the system that moved through on the 11th was stronger and produced locally heavy rain.
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 HNX wrote it up.
A series of disturbances moved into Southern California on January 10 and 11, 2015, and brushed across Kern county and the Tulare county portion of the Sierra Nevada. Only light precipitation occurred on January 10, but the system that moved through on the 11th was stronger and produced locally heavy rain. This resulted in some street flooding in the Bakersfield area along with some rock slides along Highway 178 in the Kern county mountains, and along Redrock-Randsburg Road in the Kern county desert.
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 10, 3:51 PM PST, 10 hours 9 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CA
351 PM PST SAT JAN 10 2015
.UPDATE...
UPDATED AIR QUALITY SECTION.
&&
.SYNOPSIS...
A SERIES OF WEAK UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES WILL TRACK THROUGH
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND BRING A CHANCE OF SHOWERS OVER THE MOUNTAINS
AND MUCH OF KERN COUNTY THROUGH SUNDAY. BY EARLY NEXT WEEK...A LOW
PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE OVER THE GREAT BASIN AND BRING A
COOL...DRY NORTHERLY FLOW WITH POSSIBLE BREEZY CONDITIONS TO THE
REGION
&&
.DISCUSSION...
SHORT WAVE DISTURBANCE JUST OFF THE SOCAL COAST IS SPREADING LOTS
OF CLOUDS AND SHOWERS INLAND THIS AFTERNOON. LATEST RADAR IMAGERY
SHOWS AN AREA OF GENERALLY LIGHT PRECIPITATION LIFTING NORTHEAST
ACROSS THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS. BUT SO FAR THE BARK IS WORSE
THAN THE BITE AS THE LOWER ATMOSPHERE IS STILL RELATIVELY DRY.
MESONET REVEALS ONLY A COUPLE HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH RAINFALL AT A
HANDFUL OF STATIONS. BUT A MOISTENING TREND IS NOTED PER THE 12Z
KVBG SOUNDING WHICH MEASURED 0.91" PWAT...UP FROM 0.64" YESTERDAY
MORNING. SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE IN FROM THE COAST THIS
EVENING WITH A FEW HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH QPF IN THE MOUNTAINS AND
MAINLY JUST TRACE AMOUNTS FOR THE KERN COUNTY DESERT AND POSSIBLY
EVEN OVER THE SOUTH END OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. SATELLITE
IMAGERY SHOWS MORE SHORT WAVE ENERGY JUST INSIDE OF 130W WHICH
WILL MOVE TOWARDS POINT CONCEPTION OVERNIGHT THEN SLIDE DOWN THE
SOCAL COAST ON SUNDAY. AN UPTICK IN ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO
DEVELOP FROM AROUND MIDNIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING AS THE
OFFSHORE DISTURBANCE NEARS. UPSLOPE ENHANCEMENT COULD RESULT IN
MODERATE SHOWER ACTIVITY AT TIMES FOR SOUTH FACING SLOPES IN THE
KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS. STORM TOTAL QPF IS GENERALLY ONE TO TWO
TENTHS OF AN INCH...BUT MAY EXCEED A QUARTER OF AN INCH IN A FEW
LOCATIONS. SNOW LEVELS WILL REMAIN ABOVE 7000 FEET DUE TO THE MID
LATITUDE MOISTURE FEED. THE KERN DESERT SHOULD SEE A FEW
HUNDREDTHS TO A TENTH OF AN INCH...WITH A FEW HUNDREDTHS POSSIBLE
OVER THE SOUTHERN SUV. SHOWERS WILL TAPER OFF DURING THE DAY AND
END BY SUNDAY EVENING. ANOTHER SHORT WAVE TROUGH WILL DIVE DOWN
FROM THE PACNW AND MOVE OVER NEVADA ON MONDAY. THERE IS LIMITED
MOISTURE AND BEST DYNAMICS WILL BE TO OUR EAST. BUT WILL HANG ON
TO LOW CHANCE POPS FOR THE SIERRA CREST MONDAY AFTN/EVE. UPPER
RIDGING THEN BUILDS IN TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY FOR DRY CONDITIONS.
CONFIDENCE DECREASES LATER IN THE WEEK AS THE RIDGE FLATTENS AND A
WEAK TROUGH MOVES OVER THE EPAC. TEMPERATURES WILL TREND SLIGHTLY
LOWER THROUGH MONDAY THEN REBOUND BY MIDWEEK WITH AN OFFSHORE
SURFACE FLOW. SJV TEMPS WILL REMAIN 5-10 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL
THROUGH NEXT WEEK WITH HAZY CONDITIONS AND PATCHY OVERNIGHT FOG.
&&
.AVIATION...
AREAS OF IFR IN HAZE AND MIST OVER THE SAN JOAQUIN
VALLEY...OTHERWISE VFR CONDITIONS CAN BE EXPECTED ELSEWHERE ACROSS
THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA INTERIOR DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
&&
.AIR QUALITY ISSUES...
ON SUNDAY JANUARY 11 2015... UNHEALTHY IN FRESNO... KERN...
KINGS... MADERA... MERCED AND TULARE COUNTIES. FIREPLACE/WOOD
STOVE BURNING STATUS IS: NO BURNING UNLESS REGISTERED IN MADERA
AND MERCED COUNTIES. NO BURNING FOR ALL IN FRESNO... KERN...
KINGS AND TULARE COUNTIES. FURTHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT
VALLEYAIR.ORG
&&
.CERTAINTY...
THE LEVEL OF CERTAINTY FOR DAYS 1 AND 2 IS MEDIUM.
THE LEVEL OF CERTAINTY FOR DAYS 3 THROUGH 7 IS MEDIUM.
THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED AS PART OF A TRIAL PROJECT CONDUCTED
BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD.
CERTAINTY LEVELS INCLUDE LOW...MEDIUM...AND HIGH. PLEASE VISIT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/HNX/CERTAINTY.PHP /ALL LOWER CASE/ FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION AND/OR TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK.
&&
.CLIMATE...
RECORDS
SITE DATE HI_MAX:YEAR LO_MAX:YEAR HI_MIN:YEAR LO_MIN:YEAR
KFAT 01-10 68:1959 38:1947 54:1936 18:1949
KFAT 01-11 74:1990 37:1947 54:1979 19:1949
KFAT 01-12 67:2003 38:1926 56:1980 20:1902
KBFL 01-10 71:2012 38:1972 55:1959 21:1937
KBFL 01-11 80:1990 38:1972 56:1940 22:1902
KBFL 01-12 73:1914 39:1929 61:1980 21:1949
&&
.HNX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NONE.
&&
PUBLIC...DCH
AVN/FW...DUDLEY
SYNOPSIS...BSO
WEATHER.GOV/HANFORDThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.
Rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1 inch in 24 hours over the Kern county produced ponding of water/flooding on roadways in the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, in and south of Bakersfield. The flooded areas included part of Highway 99 between Rosedale Highway and Olive Drive in Bakersfield and Highway 119 near Buena Vista.
Heavy rain resulted in a rock slide on the eastbound side of Highway 178 near the mouth of the Kern Canyon. The road was blocked by baseball sized rocks.
Heavy rain contributed to rocks sliding across the roadway.
Rainfall of 0.93 inches in less than 24 hours at Wofford Heights, elevation 4800 feet.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in California, January 2015
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: 551361, 551370, 551375, 551377.