Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Storm does some damage

A thunderstorm pushed its way rapidly across Nevada County on the afternoon of May 4 with the majority of the severe weather hitting the southern end of the county. Reports of downed trees and power lines began to trickle in soon after the storm had dumped large amounts of rain in a very short period of time. Nevada County Sheriffs Deputies also reported dime-sized hail in some areas during the heaviest part of the storm.

Local weather watcher Davis Benton said his records indicate about three-quarters of an inch of rain fell in less than a half hour during the afternoon. He said the more serious threat was the gusting winds. Benton said his immediate neighborhood - the Cale area - was fortunate and only experienced downed tree limbs.

Nevada County Mayor James Roy Brown said the county crews started working to clear trees from roadways shortly after the storm hit at about 3:30 p.m.

We worked till close to 7 and got all the roads open, Brown said.

Friday morning, he said hed worked on some additional problem areas that werent initially reported. He said county crews will need to remove some stumps from road ditches over the coming week or so.

The majority of the problems in the county had to do with downed trees blocking roads. Brown said there wasnt enough rain to damage roads. Those roads damaged by falling trees were graveled and repairs will be a matter of grading.

Dale Booker, 911 coordinator for Nevada County, said he had received reports of timber damage and roof damage, concentrated in the southern part of the county. He said hed also picked up reports of two house fires on Thursday evening, though there was no real indication whether those were related to the weather.

A house fire was reported south of Highway 278, but Booker said the damage was apparently not significant and that the fire was out before the fire trucks arrived. The second was an unoccupied mobile home at Bodcaw and Booker said his information indicated that the home was a total loss.

May began with some weather extremes, including rain and winds. Local weather watchers report that Nevada County residents saw a wide range of weather conditions during the month of April.

The weather for April 2006 ranged from very cool to very warm, and very dry to very wet, reported weather watcher Phillip McAdams.

McAdams reported that the low temperature for April was 39 degrees, reported on April 10 and 11. By contrast, 90 degrees was recorded on April 17 and 18.

Weatherman Davis Benton reported on his reading in Cale. Benton indicated that the lowest temperature he recorded was 38 and the highest was 94.

Benton reported that there was 2.7 inches of rainfall in Cale during the month of April, and a total of 17.09 for the year. Benton called that about normal for the first four months of the year.

McAdams reported that he noted a total of 3.26 inches of rainfall. Essentially, all of this rain came during the last 11 days of the month, McAdams reported. His records indicate very small amounts of precipitation on April 1 and 6, with the other noted rainfall after April 20. The largest single amount of rainfall, according to McAdams, fell on April 28 and 29 with 1.69 inches.

In the City of Prescott, there was a brief period of time without electricity, but the power was restored relatively quickly.