The low pressure center which approached the California coast on November 19 moved inland across southern California on November 20. This system produced widespread precipitation across the area with the most significant precipitation impacting Kern and Tulare Counties.
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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 HNX wrote it up.
The low pressure center which approached the California coast on November 19 moved inland across southern California on November 20. This system produced widespread precipitation across the area with the most significant precipitation impacting Kern and Tulare Counties. Flooding along State Route 99 in the Wheeler Ridge and Mettler areas resulted in the highway being closed for a period of time. The Grapevine and Frazier Park areas generally picked up between half and inch and an inch of liquid precipitation while many locations in the Tehachapi and Lake Isabella areas and the Kern County Deserts as well as the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County picked up between a quarter inch and a half inch of precipitation. The snow level was generally around 6000 feet, but briefly lowered to 5000 feet at times in heavier showers. Most locations in the mountains in Kern and Tulare Counties above 6000 feet picked up between 6 and 9 inches of snow while there were some locally higher accumulations around Pine Mountain Club. Further north, precipitation amounts were much lower with most locations picking up less than a tenth of an inch.
The Los Angeles radar (KVTX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 14:32 UTC.
3 heavy snow, 1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Several reports of heavy snowfall at Pine Mountain Club with measurements of as much as 14 inches of new snowfall at 6250 feet and at 5800 feet.
Tulare County Emergency Manager reported an estimated 9 inches of new snowfall at Kennedy Meadows (6200 feet).
Public report of an estimated 6 inches of new snowfall at Ponderosa (7200 feet).
California Highway Patrol reported flash flooding on State Route 99 just north of the intersection with Interstate 5 near Wheeler Ridge. Mud and Debris blocked the northbound lanes and two of the southbound lanes resulting in State Route 99 being closed from the Interstate 5 intersection to Mettler until late morning.
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, November 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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 856901, 856902, 856903, 856900.