Baby, It’s Cold--and Wet--Outside

Temperatures in Orange County dropped to the middle- to low-40s early Saturday as a fast-moving cold front swept through Southern California, sprinkling snow in the Los Angeles Basin foothills and dusting desert communities from Palm Springs to Needles on the Colorado River.

As temperatures hovered in the mid-40s, streets throughout most of Orange County were dampened with rain overnight, with .24 of an inch measured in Newport Beach. Similar amounts of precipitation fell in Los Angeles County and throughout the Southland, turning to snow at higher elevations in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains and foothills.

Southern Californians shivered as morning low temperatures dropped into the 30s in some areas. And in Palm Springs, where snow accumulated on rooftops for a time, the thermometer stood at 38 degrees at 1 p.m.

Front From Northwest

The National Weather Service blamed a front moving southeast out of the Gulf of Alaska for Saturday’s conditions. By late afternoon, the system had moved into the desert on its way out of the area.

The Orange County forecast late Saturday was for clearing skies in the evening and mostly clear skies Sunday, weather officials at Newport Beach reported. A small-craft advisory would remain in effect through Sunday for the outer waters from Point Conception to San Clemente Island due to choppy waves from northwesterly winds of 20 to 30 knots, officials said.

Temperatures throughout Southern California are expected to warm up by Monday or Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported.

Besides the cold temperatures and rough waves, Saturday also saw unusually low tides.

At the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve near Huntington Beach, a larger-than-usual area of mud flats was exposed in the outer bay, attracting marine birds and bird watchers to the 557-acre coastal reserve. The tides are expected to be even lower today, with the low point expected about 2:30 p.m. just south of Sunset Beach.

Meanwhile the good news from the Santa Ana Zoo was that Baby Jackson, or B.J., the only groundhog in a Southern California zoo, did not see his shadow when he emerged from his burrow under cloudy skies after a rainstorm Saturday morning, zoo officials said.

‘Poked Nose Around’

“He poked his nose around for a while and stayed out about a half-hour,” said associate curator Warnie McIlwaine.

Tradition holds that if a groundhog sees its shadow when it comes out of winter hibernation on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, it will return to its hole and winter will continue for six more weeks. But B.J. has adjusted his winter sleeping pattern to California weather by ending his hibernation in late January, McIlwaine said.

On whether B.J. actually saw his shadow or not, McIlwaine said, “It was cloudy, so I doubt it.”