LOS ANGELES – Heavy snow fell in southern California on Friday, as the primary blizzard in a era pounded the hills round Los Angeles, with heavy rains threatening flooding elsewhere.
Breathless tv climate presenters extra used to delivering a same-every-day forecast of heat sunshine discovered themselves knee-deep within the white stuff because the area grappled with its worst winter storm for many years.
Major roads had been closed as ice and snow made them impassable, together with sections of Interstate 5, the primary north-south freeway that connects Mexico, California, the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
Authorities mentioned there was no estimate when it will be reopened.
“Dangerous and potentially life-threatening snow related impacts are likely for mountain, desert, and foothill roadways in southern California,” the National Weather Service (NWS) mentioned.
“Multiple rounds of heavy snowfall coupled with strong winds will lead to blizzard conditions over some of the higher terrain and mountain passes.
“Areas very near the Pacific Coast and likewise into the inside valleys that aren’t accustomed to seeing snow, may even see some accumulating snowfall.”
Snow and high winds brought down power lines, knocking out the lights for over 100,000 customers in California, according to poweroutage.us.
Television stations dispatched their presenters to mountain areas, where some reported on traffic misery and others chatted with gleeful children given the day off school.
Social media platforms were inundated with pictures of varying amounts of snow in gardens in higher elevation areas, as residents marveled at the winter weather.
Even the Hollywood sign appeared to be trying to muscle in on the action, with Jeff Zarrinnam of the Hollywood Sign Trust snapping a picture of a snowball he made at his nearby house.
“I’ve seen all the things,” he told the Los Angeles Times, but “it was fairly a shock” to find snow this low.
Meteorologists were divided over whether it was technically “snow” and the NWS offered a Twitter tutorial for Californians struggling to put a name to the unusual white stuff spoiling the view of palm trees.
“Wondering what sort of frozen precipitation is falling from the sky in your space (assuming you might be at the next elevation)? Here is an informative graphic… that distinguishes between graupel and hail,” NWS Los Angeles tweeted.
Hail (“exhausting & stable”) is “frozen raindrops of ice from thunderstorms,” while graupel (“tender & moist”) is “snowflakes that accumulate supercooled water droplets on the outer floor,” the agency informed readers.
Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA said a warming climate — caused by humanity’s unchecked burning of fossil fuels in the industrial age — had changed the nature of winter precipitation in the area.
He said last century, many more places might have seen snow in a storm event like this.
“Back within the Nineteen Forties there’s data of heavy snowfall within the metropolis of LA and naturally that appears nearly unthinkable right this moment,” he said.
“The actuality is that the truth that the local weather is a number of levels hotter in California than it was once makes low (elevation) snow occasions much less probably.”
Flash flooding
For people at those lower elevations, heavy rain on Friday was sparking warnings of inundations and landslides.
A flood watch was in place for portions of Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties where up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain was expected in an hour.
“Increased risk of flash flooding/rockslides,” the NWS said.
“Expect potential for very heavy rain, highway flooding, small hail, & gusty winds. Ocean waterspouts & land-based tornadoes are doable.”
Winter weather was also making life difficult in other parts of the West, with roads closed in Wyoming, and Oregon reporting near-record snow.
“Portland skilled its second snowiest day ever recorded (on Thursday) with 10.8 inches of snow,” the NWS bureau within the metropolis mentioned.
The heavy climate continued to snarl flights after a number of days of distress for air vacationers.
More than 370 flights into, out of or across the United States had been canceled by 2300 GMT Friday, with nearly 6,000 extra delayed. —Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
