It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

By MATEA GOLD

Dec. 22, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

After a balmy week of summer-like warmth, the first day of winter dawned sharply cold in Los Angeles and Orange County, ushering in an abrupt temperature drop and a chilly spell expected to last the week.

The frosty weather forced Southern Californians to exchange their shorts and coconut oil for bulky jackets and gloves as residents scraped ice off their windshields and stamped their feet to stay warm.

But for many, it was the perfect start to a holiday week.

“It’s beautiful,” said Olivia Lucido, 34, breathing in the crisp morning air as she rode downtown L.A.’s Angels Flight to her job as a paralegal. “It finally feels like Christmas in California.”

A jet stream from Alaska and western Canada swept cold air across the region and dropped temperatures about 10 degrees below normal, said Jeff House, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasting services for The Times.

The high Monday at Los Angeles’ Civic Center was 55 degrees, the low 41. Overnight lows were expected drop to the 30s, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a freeze warning for the Los Angeles County valleys and Ventura County.

The chilly weather will linger through the week, House said, with temperatures slowly warming up to the low 60s by Christmas.

In Orange County, though temperatures dipped into the 30s, no crop damage was reported, and few problems were reported to police from either the cold or high winds that plagued the county’s canyon areas.

A.G. Kawamura, who farms in Irvine, said after last week’s heavy winds caused lost production time, farmers growing strawberries, red peppers and celery now must guard against frost conditions.

“We’re expecting a pretty good frost,” Kawamura said Monday. “We got all the sprinklers going now [to help protect] crops. For us, though we have some strawberries being picked now, it’s the red bell peppers that can get clobbered.”

Kawamura said that in terms of weather sensitivity, the peppers are very delicate.

“The temperature doesn’t have to be 32 degrees to freeze,” he said. “If the dew point is right, crops can freeze at 34 degrees. But [Monday night] we’re going to have more of a frost than a freeze so it shouldn’t be that bad.”

Shoppers at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza had mixed reactions to the cold weather.

“I’m from Utah, so this is warm,” said Tammie McQuain, 29, who moved to Southern California five months ago. “I’m used to 40-below temperatures. People here go crazy when they have to drive in the rain--I’d hate to see them drive in the snow.”

Julie Hayward, a Southern California native home for the holidays from England where she now lives, agreed. “Frozen toes are cold,” she said. “This is not cold.”

Heidi Saad, 39, who moved to Huntington Beach from Egypt 13 years ago, had a different reaction. “I’m wearing wool but I’m still freezing,” she said. “I don’t know what I should do. This is unacceptable.”

The freezing weather caused havoc in the mountains, as snow and ice closed the Golden State Freeway late Sunday night at Castaic Lake, stranding hundreds of northbound travelers.

Some motorists were at a standstill for more than 12 hours. Truck drivers passed the time watching television in their cabs, while others tried to catch traffic and weather bulletins on their radios. Early Monday, California Highway Patrol officers finally escorted vehicles in convoys of 500 along the glazed freeway.

A forecast of high winds and freezing temperatures suggests that closures could continue, CHP officials said.

“It’s totally up to the weather gods,” said CHP Officer Karen Faciane. “It’s cold enough. If we’ve got water up there, it’ll freeze. If not, we’ll be lucky.”

Although the arrival of nippy weather made some long for last week’s heat wave, others wondered at the fuss.

“It gives you the feeling of winter and fireplaces and all the good memories of Christmas,” said Margaret De La Cruz, 57.

Agreeing with the need for a little holiday ambience, Charles Thomas, 55, rubbed his arms as he walked in downtown Los Angeles and hoped aloud that “it’s colder than this Christmas Day. None of that 85-degrees-people-wearing-shorts holiday. That’s not normal.”

For those without shelter, however, the chilling night air sparked a rush for cover, homeless service providers said.

On Sunday night, all 140 beds at L.A. Family Housing Corp.’s North Hollywood shelter were filled for the first time this year, said Joe Zuniga, program coordinator for the shelter.

“It took people by surprise, after the heat we had last week,” he said. “The cold weather has certainly brought in a lot of new, first-time clients.”

The northern jet stream chilled temperatures across the state, causing snowfall and freezing weather that threatened harvests.

Temperatures dipped to 25 degrees in some parts of Ventura County early Monday, sending some farmers scrambling to protect their crops, especially citrus and avocados.

This week’s cold snap could bring Ventura County’s chilliest temperatures since December 1990. That’s when the mercury dipped to 15 degrees and destroyed 50% to 80% of crops in some areas.

In Fresno, a light snowfall Sunday night sparked fascination and fears. Jeffrey Reid’s 6-year-old son had never seen snow, so he was quickly out the door Monday morning. “It was pretty exciting,” said Reid, the city manager for Fresno. On Sunday night, “it just opened up, and there was an inch or so stuck to the ground [Monday morning]. The kids were out with the snowball fights, and people were just wandering around the neighborhoods in disbelief.”

Times staff writers Tom Gorman, David Haldane, Eric Lichtblau, Solomon Moore and David Reyes and correspondent Massie Ritsch contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Winter Chill in the Air

A dip in the jet stream bringing cold air from Canada down the Pacific Coast is responsible for the Orange County cold snap, according to the National Weather Service. Overnight lows will continue into the 30s in most parts of the county tonight and begin easing Wednesday night.

Tonight’s projected low temperatures

Anaheim: 34

Brea: 37

Buena Park: 32

Capistrano Beach: 30

Corona del Mar: 38

Costa Mesa: 34

Cypress: 36

Dana Point: 30

Fountain Valley: 40

Fullerton: 40

Garden Grove: 38