Snow Falls in Wide Area as Mercury Dips

Arctic air continued to assault Southern California on Sunday, bringing reports of snowfall in low-lying areas from Riverside to Orange County, keeping high temperatures at record or near-record low levels and prompting officials to issue freeze warnings for some agricultural areas.

The peak reading of 53 degrees recorded at the Los Angeles Civic Center was only 1 degree warmer than the coldest high for the date, recorded in 1909. The mercury at UC Riverside only reached 47, shattering the old low maximum of 51 degrees set in 1949.

Snow showers were reported in the San Bernardino Valley, and snow stuck to the ground for a time near Rancho Cucamonga, the National Weather Service said.

Temperatures in Mid-20s

March Air Force Base, near Riverside, reported snow showers at 1,500 feet elevation, and snow also fell in the Orange County community of Rancho Santa Margarita.

Temperatures were expected to drop into the mid-20s this morning and Tuesday, prompting the weather service to issue a frost advisory for inland valleys.

Cold air moved into San Diego County with the weather service saying that the coldest inland areas will drop to the upper 20s. Agricultural interests in those areas were alerted to take measures to protect crops from frost since the temperature was expected to fall below freezing early this morning.

Tonight will be even colder, the weather service said, as lows drop to the low and middle 20s. The frost advisory will remain in effect.

In Northern California, light snow covered the higher hills of the San Francisco Bay Area Sunday after overnight temperatures dipped below freezing.

Snow was also reported at sea level in Marin County for the first time in 13 years. Two inches fell at Dillon Beach and children made a small snowman at Agate Beach in the coastal town of Bolinas.

Record low temperatures were reported in Red Bluff, where the mercury hit 22 degrees early Sunday morning, the coldest in 100 years. A bone-chilling 21 degrees, with a wind-chill factor of 16 degrees below zero, was recorded in Redding.

California Highway Patrol officers closed the Grapevine section of Interstate 5 through the Tejon Pass and the Tehachapis on Sunday morning after snowplows were unable to keep the highway clear during a steady snowfall. The freeway, the main artery between the northern and southern halves of the state, was reopened to traffic at 2 p.m. when weather conditions improved.

High temperatures in the Los Angeles Basin will be in the mid-50s today and tomorrow, with northeast winds gusting up to 25 m.p.h. below the canyons, said Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The mercury will move up a degree or two on Wednesday, Dittmann said, but “the rest of the week is unsettled. Storms now over the Pacific are headed toward Southern California, and we may see wet weather for most of the region from Wednesday through Friday.”