Storm leaves a blanket of snow across Southland

Grounded motorist Mike Cerrato walks up the Avenue S onramp to the southbound 14 Freeway in Palmdale. Heading home to Santa Clarita from Mammoth, he was stranded in Mojave overnight.

A law enforcement vehicle has the 14 Freeway to itself as the highway remained closed in northern Los Angeles County after a major snowstorm.

Unable to proceed by car, motorist Mike Cerrato shovels snow off of the Avenue S onramp to the southbound 14 Freeway in Palmdale. It would take snowplows and warming weather to reopen the road, but he said shoveling helped him relieve boredom and work off the fast food he had been subsisting on while stranded.

Antelope Valley commuters and truckers line up at the Avenue S onramp to the 14 Freeway in Palmdale, waiting for officials to reopen the route.

Stranded Antelope Valley commuters look hopefully for a train at the Palmdale station. Mass transit and vehicle traffic was running late in much of the region as it recovered from a freeway-blocking snowfall.

Commuters crowd into a Metrolink car at the Palmdale station. There was standing room only on the trip to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, as many riders had been stranded by snow in the Antelope Valley overnight.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Palm trees drooping under the weight of snow greeted shoppers at the nearly deserted Antelope Valley Mall.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Morning sun began to melt several inches of snow that covered the parking lot at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Stranded Antelope Valley commuter Christian Alvarez, 19, of Lancaster waits for a Metrolink train to take him to his job as an administrative assistant in Woodland Hills. Alvarez usually drives more than 60 miles to get to his job and doesn’t know what time he’ll make it to work.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

As the sunrise illuminates the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains, a person captures the scene while on a morning walk at Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A snowy egret searches for food at the Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve as two people walk along a path with a view of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A trucker heading north on the 5 Freeway has a view of snow-dusted mountains in the Angeles National Forest north of Sylmar.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Brittany Hicks, left, and Brian Kaus, both 22, are surrounded by trucks as they wait in Castaic for the northbound Interstate 5 to open. The Cal State Long Beach students are on their first day of vacation. They left Huntington Beach in the early morning headed to Lake Tahoe to ski.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

California Highway Patrol Officer John Lutz begins to pick up barricades Thursday morning at the closed Lake Hughes Road onramp to Interstate 5 in Castaic.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Snow covers the Luxor Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.  (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Visitors take photos under the famous sign welcoming motorists on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.  (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Snow covers Joshua trees and other flora in the Antelope Valley desert Monday afternoon.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Snowboarders trudge through freshly fallen snow in Green Valley Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

William Lucas digs his car out from fresh snowfall in Arrowbear in the San Bernardino Mountains.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In blizzard-like conditions, a man leaves the local market in Green Valley Lake.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Protruding windshield wipers and a side-view mirror are the only visible parts of a car parked in Green Valley Lake after heavy snowfall in the San Bernardino Mountains.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Alaina Flad, left, and Meghan Brooks, both of Bakersfield, stop to take pictures in the snow in Gorman.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Alex Saenz struggles to open a car frozen shut at his auto repair shop in Gorman.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Investigators walk around the hilltop scene on Bouquet Canyon Road in Saugus where a gust of wind caused a helicopter to crash, killing a man on the ground. The helicopter was contracted by Southern California Edison to string power lines between poles in the area along Bouquet Canyon near Vasquez Canyon.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Arnold Garcia, left, makes a snowman with his stepson Issac Martinez in Palmdale as snow falls in the Antelope Valley town this morning.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

A woman walks along a snow-covered street in Palmdale. A powerful storm has dumped up to 6 inches of snow in the Antelope Valley area.

Snow accumulates on the 14 Freeway near Acton where traffic moved slowly with occasional California Highway Patrol escorts early this morning. The CHP has since closed part of the freeway.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

New Volkswagens are covered with snow at an auto lot in Palmdale.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Traffic moves slowly on the 14 Freeway this morning.

CHP officer checks vehicles for chains at a checkpoint on Highway 18 at the 3,000 foot elevation level just north of San Bernardino.

Pre-dawn vehicle lights give the Ventura Freeway a festive look as light showers pass through the San Fernando Valley.