How much rain fell in Merced during windy storm? And what’s the weekend forecast?
Merced is looking at a relatively calm weekend after being thrashed by gusty winds and rain on Friday.
Wind gusts reached as high as 45 mph early on Friday morning. Merced received .17 inches of rain in the 24-hour window ending just before 4 p.m. Friday, according to Andy Bollenbacher, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Hanford office serving the San Joaquin Valley.
Areas near Yosemite National Park could see two or three inches of snow per hour for stretches of Friday morning, according to the weather service, which says “snow in the foothills will likely cripple travel through Saturday.”
Interstate 5 was closed over the Grapevine due to snow and ice on the roadway with no estimated time for a reopening, and Highway 58 over Tehachapi Pass was closed for several hours Friday while crews cleaned up multiple crashes.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said power outages in the San Joaquin Valley were sporadic. There were 3,090 customers without power in 19 incidents at 4:30 p.m. Friday in PG&E’s Yosemite Division, which includes Merced, Mariposa, Madera, Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties.
Merced could see a quarter of an inch of rain overnight, but Bollenbacher said he expects the storm to dry out on Saturday. Rain could return on Sunday, but it will be light.
It could be breezy this weekend but Merced won’t see the strong wind gusts that blew through town on Friday.
“The system is coming from the Gulf of Alaska with sub-tropical moisture being sucked into it,” Bollenbacher said. “With a cold front on top, it’s squeezing out the moisture.”
The Fresno Bee contributed to this report
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 5:11 PM.
