In a rarity, snow falls on Southern California, and not just in the mountains
Snow?
Snow!
How often do Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, Pasadena or North Hollywood get a dusting? How about Zuma Beach and Malibu?
Not often. Which is why the weather was the buzz Thursday among flatlanders and hill dwellers.
“We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls about it and people are pretty interested. This is really getting people excited,” said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles/Oxnard office.
Yes, there was snow in 2013, 2014 and 2015, according to Phillips. But the last time it accumulated in downtown L.A. was 1949, and there were reports of it snowing there Thursday, she said. The weather service hadn’t confirmed that it was sticking, however.
The storm that moved across Southern California brought with it a blast of cold air from the north and left many throughout the region surprised to see snow falling. By midafternoon, the snow level had dropped to 1,400 feet and, according to the weather service, was going to continue to drop overnight.
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By midday, Caltrans had shut down all highways into the Big Bear area in the San Bernardino Mountains. There were reports of avalanches and mudslides along Highway 38, according to the weather service and the California Highway Patrol. Highway 18 from Lucerne Valley to Big Bear reopened to motorists who had snow chains about 2 p.m.
Highway 74 from Lake Elsinore into Orange County was also closed at about 4 p.m. due to snow but reopened before 6:30 p.m.
Traffic made its way, slowly, on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass.
The storm was one in a series that has slammed Southern California in recent weeks, bringing drought-ending rainfall to much of the area and leaving mountain highways damaged and closed for weeks, and in the case of Highway 243 in the San Jacinto Mountains, even months.
The wet weather could be here a while longer — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week that an El Niño had arrived and could continue through the spring.
The chill and flurries weren’t familiar for much of Southern California.
Residents in areas including Fontana and Calabasas talked about the uniqueness of the winter storm and its impact. Even actor Jerry O’Connell tweeted about it Thursday afternoon. Snow was also reported in Hemet, San Jacinto, Malibu and at Zuma Beach, although the weather service said it was unclear whether the snow was on the sand or, more likely, in the hills above.
Some people who thought they saw snow actually saw snow pellets, said Brandt Maxwell, a meteorologist in the weather service’s San Diego office. Snow pellets are snow that becomes covered with ice and resembles “really small hail” and can form at a temperature as high as 41 degrees.
The snow level was so low Thursday because of what is called evaporative cooling. Maxwell explained that dry air near the ground evaporates the precipitation. Thermal energy is required for the evaporation, and using up that heat allows snow to fall at lower elevations than usually otherwise possible. That process can lower the snow level 300-500 feet or more, Maxwell said.
On New Year’s Eve 2014, snow fell in Murrieta and surrounding areas at an elevation of about 1,200 feet. That storm was different than Thursday’s in that there was widespread accumulated snow on the valley floor, Maxwell said.
The upper elevations were not left out of the unusual weather Thursday. The weather service reported “thundersnow” in the San Bernardino Mountains. Thunder and lightning are 1,000 times rarer during snowfall than rainfall, Maxwell said.