Accumulating mountain snow caused travel delays. Thunderstorms brought accumulating small hail and a funnel cloud in the Central Valley.
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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.
Accumulating mountain snow caused travel delays. Thunderstorms brought accumulating small hail and a funnel cloud in the Central Valley.
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 22, 5:48 AM PST, 1 hour 12 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sacramento CA 648 AM PDT Fri Mar 22 2019 .SYNOPSIS... Another round of rain and snow this afternoon through Saturday with enough mountain snow to impact weekend travel. Dry Sunday then more rain and mountain snow Monday through most of next week. Heaviest precipitation mid week. && .DISCUSSION... Clear skies over the forecast area this morning under small scale upper level ridging. Satellite imagery shows a Pacific frontal system approaching the coast at this time with warm frontal cloud cover and light showers approaching the coast. Cloud cover should begin spreading over the forecast area through the morning hours with some light precipitation entering the western CWA by mid day. Models indicating main frontal band will push into the western CWA by this afternoon and then into the Sierra overnight. Precipitation at the lower elevations is expected to be fairly light with this system but good orographics will bring heavier amounts over the Sierra Cascade range. Associated upper trough moves across Norcal on Saturday for continued shower activity. Should see enough snowfall below pass levels from mid day today through mid day Saturday to justify winter weather advisory currently in place. Stability proggs indicating some minor instability moving across the north state Saturday afternoon as the trough axis moves through. Have kept thunderstorm threat for the Sacramento valley in the forecast even though the threat will be short lived with trough axis expected to be along the CA/NV border by 00z Sunday. Cloud cover and cooler air associated with this system will bring daytime highs back down below normal both today and Saturday. Skies clear out Saturday night with a fair dry day expected Sunday as another shortwave ridge slides across the state. Daytime highs Sunday should push back up to around normal. Next round of precipitation pushes quickly into Norcal Sunday night with the main frontal band pushing through the north state on Monday. This system appears will be a little wetter than the Today/Saturday system. Once again orographics will aid in precipitation production so travel impacts over the Sierra will again be likely. && .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (Tuesday THROUGH Friday) Showery precipitation continues on Tuesday with moist southwest flow. Light snow accumulations are possible in the mountains. There is some potential for afternoon convection in the Valley, but confidence isn't high enough to add mention of thunderstorms to the forecast yet. A stronger Pacific storm arrives Late Tuesday with more widespread rain and mountain snow. The core of the storm moves inland Wednesday and continues precipitation into Thursday. Precipitation amounts for Tuesday through Thursday currently are projected to be around 1 inch for the Central Valley and 2 inches for the foothills and mountains. Mountain travel impacts due to periods of heavy snow and strong wind are likely. Early estimates of snow amounts are 1 to 2 feet above 5000 feet, potentially more above 6000 feet. Friday looks drier with northwest flow, with just some lingering light mountain showers. EK && .AVIATION... VFR conditions through 16z, becoming widespread MVFR with -RA spreading across TAF sites by around 18z and continuing into Saturday morning. Surface winds generally below 12 kt through 18z, increasing to 12 to 15 kt over the northern Sacramento Valley, with gusts to 20-25 kt. EK && .STO WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Weather Advisory from 11 AM this morning to 5 PM PDT Saturday for West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada-Western Plumas County/Lassen Park. &&
The Beale AFB radar (KBBX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:01 UTC.
1 winter weather, 1 hail, 1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
Caltrans reported 6 of snow at their Kingvale Maintenance Yard. This brought chain controls at times with minor delays on I80.
There were numerous reports of accumulating small hail in the Chico area, via social medial. Hail covered both the road and grassy surfaces.
A funnel cloud and possible rotating wall cloud were reported by two spotters over the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge area. Also, hail as large as one half inch in diameter accumulated to 2 inches deep on Highway 45 between Grimes and Sycamore.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in California, March 2019
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: 816037, 816038, 816030.