Sunday was another very windy day across California, with winds gusting 30 to 40 mph in San Joaquin Valley. Fresno-Yosemite International Airport officially reported a 38 mph gust, which was stronger than Saturday’s peak gust of 33 mph. These winds won’t return again this week, but our fire danger will remain high – so the Red Flag Warning for high fire danger continues until 8 p.m. Monday.
Winds were howling at times across California both Saturday and Sunday – it was definitely a windy weekend! Winds in the San Joaquin Valley were mostly in the 35 to 40 mph range, although a bit less (near 30 mph) in Tulare County. Some of the stronger gusts locally were at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada, where east of Lake Isabella in Kern County, Bird Springs Pass (el. 6300′) reported an 87 mph gust! A little further north in Kern County, Walker Pass (el. 5500′) had a 72 mph gust. And just a little further north of that, a spot on Hwy 395 just a little east of the far southern edge of Tulare County called Five Mile reported a 90 mph gust! These winds kicked up a big dust storm Sunday evening in the Owens Valley and Mojave Desert. At the northern part of the Owens Valley, Bishop had a 73 mph gust, while at the top of Mammoth Mountain, there was another 90 mph gust. The windiest spot in California was one of the usual suspects when it comes to strong winds: Ward Peak. At an elevation of 8400′, this is the top of Alpine Meadows ski resort (adjacent to Palisades) at Lake Tahoe, and frequently the windiest spot in California during major winter storms. It holds the record for the strongest wind gust ever recorded in California: 199 mph, set back in February of 2017.
As these gusty north winds push south from Oregon, they drop down from the Siskiyous in far northern California into the Sacramento Valley near Redding. That descending action is a compressional and heating motion, and dries these winds out – much like the Santa Ana winds are a very dry wind. So the whole airmass in the Central Valley has become very dry, after 2 days of these strong winds. Monday should be a much calmer day wind-wise, but our humidity will remain low – especially when it heats up by the afternoon. Because of that, the Red Flag Warning for high fire danger in the San Joaquin Valley will continue until 8 p.m. Monday night…