An unusually cold storm for late May brought damaging hail over the northern Sacramento Valley, up to 2-3 inches in diameter. Flash flooding, damaging winds, funnel clouds, and high mountain snow were also observed.
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.
An unusually cold storm for late May brought damaging hail over the northern Sacramento Valley, up to 2-3 inches in diameter. Flash flooding, damaging winds, funnel clouds, and high mountain snow were also observed.
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 May 23, 2:51 AM PST, 11 hours 13 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sacramento CA 351 AM PDT Thu May 23 2019 .SYNOPSIS... Scattered light showers and Isolated thunderstorms over the Sierra today and all interior Norcal mountains Friday as one low pressure system moves east and another drops in to take its place. Scattered showers and thunderstorms most areas over the weekend with below normal daytime temperatures. Afternoon mountain showers continuing through mid week. && .DISCUSSION... Mainly dry this morning as Norcal sits under northerly upper flow between high pressure over the eastern Pacific and a low pressure system now centered near southern Nevada. Some cloud cover associated with the low is spilling over mainly the eastern half of the forecast area this morning and some scattered northern Sierra showers/thunderstorms are not out of the question later today. Elsewhere, a little more sun should bring up daytime highs today to close to normal for this time of year. An upper low, now over western Canada, is forecast to drop into the Pacific Northwest tonight and early Friday. Brief upper ridging over the state between this low and the Great Basin low should bring a short period of clearing most areas. This period of clearing will br brief, however, with afternoon heating, divergent flow aloft and orographics bringing afternoon showers and thunderstorms to the mountains Friday afternoon with some threat of showers to the northern Sacramento valley as well. The low over the Pacific Northwest now looks to be an inside slider type dropping into the Great Basin on Saturday. Therefore, the greatest risk of any shower activity will be over the eastern CWA with enough instability for thunderstorms over the Sierra Cascade range. Another cold upper low is now forecast to drop out of the Pacific Northwest on Sunday but this system should take a more westerly track. As a result, scattered showers will be a possibility over the entire CWA and north state with a threat of thunderstorms over the Sierra Cascades. Daytime highs will be taking a drop Saturday and Sunday as these two cold systems drop through the north state especially on Sunday when daytime highs are expected to come in from 10 to 15 degrees below normal. For the most part, snow levels should be above pass levels so mountain travel impacts should be minimal this weekend although snow levels may drop to pass levels at times causing periods of slick roads. Sunday's cold upper low is forecast to move east of the state Sunday night but will likely continue to have impacts on the CWA weather going in to the early part of next week. && .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (Monday THROUGH Thursday) Models have come into better agreement with progression of upper low into the Desert SW Monday, but then diverge significantly beyond this time. Although ensemble spread increases during the latter part of the extended, general consensus is that long wave troughing remains along 120W. Under broad scale weak synoptic lift, best chances for showers will be terrain induced forcing over the mountains in the afternoons. Below normal temperatures progged into Monday with high temps returning to near normal Tuesday, then above normal Wednesday and Thursday. && .AVIATION... Lcl MVFR/IFR conds poss mnly ovr fthls and mtns this aftn into eve for shwrs and isold tstms, otrw VFR conds ovr Intr NorCal nxt 24 hrs. Nly flow alf with areas of Nly sfc wnd gsts to 25 kts in Cntrl Vly, mnly N of KOVE, and adjcnt fthls/mtns til abt 02z Thu. && .STO WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. &&
The Beale AFB radar (KBBX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:03 UTC.
6 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
There was 1 1/2 feet of water flooding the west bound lane of I80.
Roadway flooding on State Route 124 on Placer County side of border just east of Bear River.
Flooding of entire west bound off-ramp of I80 in Colfax.
Golf ball size hail reported in Shasta Lake City. Pictures seen on Twitter.
Multiple reports of golf ball to tennis ball size hail reported on the east side of Redding. from 8:05 pm to 8:20 pm. pictures sent to us via Facebook.
There were numerous reports of large hail across the Redding area, including a photo of hail from the family of an NWS employee showing oblong hail as large as 3 inches in diameter. Hail this size is rare in California and is near record size. Many cars were dented or had back windows or windshields broken. A preliminary estimate of damage to hail is based on a KRCR story of up to 3000 cars damaged and a national average of $2500 for damage repairs (Auto Trends). This works out to rough estimated of around $7.5 million for auto damage alone. Some building damage was also reported, including the Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center, which suffered damage to a new roof.
Golf ball size hail was reported in Redding.
Quarter size hail was reported near Enterprise High School in Redding.
On Twitter, a user reported ping pong ball sized hail near Hartnell Ave and Victor Ave in Redding, CA.
A funnel cloud was reported in southwest Redding. No touchdown or damage was reported.
At Redding Airport, a 58 MPH wind gust was reported.
A PGE weather station on Concow Road at an elevation of 2785 feet reported a 58 MPH wind gust. Prior to this observation the station reported gusts between 35-44 MPH.
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, May 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: 829896, 830181, 830183, 830248, 830262, 830268, 830252, 832147, 832148, 832146, 832751, 832752.