Upper level trough and an associated cold front moved south and east into the central California interior and brought gusty winds to the Kern County desert areas.
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.
Upper level trough and an associated cold front moved south and east into the central California interior and brought gusty winds to the Kern County desert areas.
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 May 14, 2:19 PM PST, 7 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service San Joaquin Valley - Hanford CA 319 PM PDT SAT MAY 14 2016 .SYNOPSIS... A dry cold front continues to move through the central California interior this afternoon and evening, creating gusty winds over the Kern County mountains and desert this weekend. && .DISCUSSION... Mostly sunny and cooler across central CA. Temperatures running 6-14 degrees cooler than 24 hours ago across the San Joaquin Valley. A storm system currently moving east through north CA. Satellite images show some lower level clouds along an associated cold front moving into the northwest sectors of the central San Joaquin Valley. The front is forecast to push southeast through Central California this morning this afternoon. This will result in cool and breezy conditions with westerly winds across the west side of the San Joaquin Valley as well as the Kern County mountains and desert. San Joaquin Valley temperatures will be near seasonal levels in the lower 80s for the next couple of day due to cool marine air moving into the California interior. Strong gusty winds will develop behind the front as it pushes through the valley this afternoon and evening. A Wind Advisory has been issued for much of the Kern County mountains and desert beginning this afternoon, continuing through Sunday evening. Winds will weaken during the day Sunday but pick up again during the late afternoon and evening as a strong upper jet behind the trough pushes through central CA. The breezy west winds will allow low clouds to bank up over the southern San Joaquin Valley both Sunday and Monday morning. The high resolution models, indicate light rain both mornings, over the North facing slopes near the Grapevine area. The upper low will continue to move east, becoming centered over Idaho by Monday morning. The low will then drop south Monday afternoon, arriving in Arizona by Wednesday morning. This will trigger showers and thunderstorms over the Sierra Nevada during the afternoon and evening hours Sunday through Wednesday. The low will dig south through the Great Basin Monday and Tuesday as additional disturbances move through the low. This will bring any available moisture for storms over the Sierra Nevada from the Great Basin. The NAM and GFS are indicating pretty impressive MU CAPE values, with between 400 and 1000 J/KG each afternoon. Temperatures will begin to slowly warm each day beginning Monday as upper level high pressure builds over Central California. The operational ECMWF and GFS are both advertising a change in the weather pattern during the second half of next week as an upper low drops south along the British Columbia coastline from the Gulf of Alaska Thursday into Friday. The main impact to Central California will be stronger winds and significant cooling. With temperatures around 5 degrees below normal by next Saturday. Both models keep the region dry. && .AVIATION... VFR conditions can be expected throughout the central CA interior during the next 24 hours. Wind gusts greater than 35kts can be expected across the Tehachapi Mountains and in the Kern County Desert this evening through Sunday evening. && .AIR QUALITY ISSUES... NONE. && .CERTAINTY... The level of certainty for days 1 and 2 is high. The level of certainty for days 3 through 7 is medium. Certainty levels include low...medium...and high. Please visit www.weather.gov/hnx/certainty.php for additional information an/or to provide feedback. && .HNX Watches/Warnings/Advisories... Wind Advisory until 8 PM PDT Sunday CAZ095-097>099. && public...MV avn/fw...Bean prev discussion...Riley synopsis...WP weather.gov/hanford
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA
450 PM PDT SAT MAY 14 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0420 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 2 NE MOJAVE 35.07N 118.15W
05/14/2016 M47 MPH KERN CA AWOS
AWOS STATION MOJAVE AIRPORT /MHV/
&&
WP2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Report received from Cache Creek APRS station of 32-44 mph sustained winds between 2129 PST and 0250 PST with a peak wind gust of 67 mph at 0045 PST.
Report received from Mojave ASOS of sustained winds of 43-50 mph between 1600 PST and 1700 PST with a peak wind gust of 60 mph at 1620 PST.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in California, May 2016
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: 639678, 639699.