‘It’s Cold Enough to Hang Meat’

“Pineapple Express” breezes that fanned Southern California with tropical air just 10 days ago have been blasted into history by an arctic barrage of frigid rain, wind-driven snow and temperatures plunging to near-record levels.

Several government offices--where someone apparently believed earlier forecasts and decided not to turn up the thermostats--resembled refrigerated boxcars Tuesday as employees bundled up.

In the dank Hollywood offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles, several state employees kept their overcoats on all day. At City Hall, Karen Constine--Councilwoman Laura Chick’s chief of staff--wore gloves at her desk.

“It’s cold enough to hang meat in there,” Constine said, nodding toward her boss’ office.

The low at the Los Angeles Civic Center Tuesday morning was 39 degrees--just one degree above the record low for the date, set 102 years ago in 1894--and subfreezing predawn temperatures were reported in a number of the colder communities in the Los Angeles Basin.

Forecasters said the cold weather is the product of an unusual shift in weather patterns that has sent an icy splinter of the jet stream hurtling south from the Yukon into Southern California.

A bit of moisture picked up along the way got here a little sooner than expected, and the precipitation originally forecast for today arrived well ahead of schedule.

Clammy drizzles that started falling in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon should taper off by early this morning, forecasters said, with about a quarter of an inch of rain expected in downtown Los Angeles and about twice that much along the foothills.

Only 0.06 of an inch had fallen at the Civic Center by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. That raised the total for the season--which runs from July 1 through June 30--to 9.21 inches, compared to a normal total for the date of 10.81 inches.

Snow levels should dip as low as 2,500 feet by this morning. About 8 to 10 inches of new snow is expected at resort levels in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains before the storm system moves out to the southeast this afternoon.

As snow fell on California 330 near Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains, more than 40 cars skidded out of control Tuesday night in a chain-reaction collision, authorities said, but there were reports of only minor injuries.

Robb Kaczmarek, a meteorologist with WeatherData, said that although skies will clear tonight, temperatures should remain cool until Thursday afternoon, when there is a chance that the warm weather out of Hawaii could return.

The Pineapple Express, a more southerly branch of the jet stream, often sweeps balmy, moist air from near Hawaii into Southern California, and Kaczmarek said it could get a little warmer and a lot wetter in Southern California by Sunday.