Winter’s Chill Finally Settles In in County

Welcome to the new chillennium.

Temperatures dipped below 40 degrees in scattered areas of Orange County on Monday morning, sending people to the closet for extra blankets and to the thermostat for more heat.

Don’t worry, it’s not the dawn of a new ice age. Meteorologists say winter weather has finally caught up with Southern California after a warm, dry fall.

“It’s below normal, but it’s certainly not unusual to get this cold this time of year,” said Dan Atkin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego, who forecast chilly temperatures for the next several nights.

Temperatures dropped Monday morning to 39 in Anaheim and Santa Ana, but were slightly warmer in coastal regions. Temperatures could be a few degrees cooler in isolated areas over the next few nights, the weather service said. Daytime temperatures, though, should stay in the 60s and low 70s, with cool breezes.

The low temperatures did dip below long-term averages for Jan. 3, which ranged from 43 in Santa Ana to 42 in Laguna Beach. By comparison, the record low for the day for Santa Ana is 28, reached in 1952, according to weather service archives.

The cooler weather is trailing a frontal system that scattered showers across Orange County over the New Year’s holiday. But the air has dried out again, and with no nighttime cloud cover, the daytime heat dissipates quickly as cold air aloft descends to the ground.

The result is a slight chance of frost in canyons for the next few nights as temperatures there drop to the low 30s, Atkin said. Elsewhere, lows should stay in the 40s, he said.

The dryness will continue for at least the next few days, adding to what has been an unusually dry fall and winter.

Two weeks ago, the low was 62 degrees in Newport Beach, compared with the normal--or average temperature--of 46 degrees for that day, according to weather records.

In San Diego, New Year’s Eve storms were the only thing that kept 1999 from being the driest fall on record, the National Weather Service said.

The dryness has led fire officials to continue the fire season well past its usual end in October. One state park official said the lack of rain has had an unexpected benefit: Reduced new growth, which means no additional underbrush to add to next year’s fire season threat.

That also means less water for spring wildflowers.

“It’s not too late for the weather pattern to start changing and improve our total rainfall, but it’s not very likely, based on everybody’s expert predictions,” said Alissa Ing, resource ecologist for Chino Hills State Park. “It looks like it’s going to be a less-than-spectacular season.”

However, if rains pick up over the next few weeks, spring flowers will also.

“It doesn’t mean there won’t be any flowers,” she said. “Flowers will always try to do their thing if they get enough moisture at the time they’re supposed to.”

In the meantime, forecasters say to expect more of the kind of weather that makes University of Wisconsin football fans want to delay the trip home from the Rose Bowl.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Brrrrisk Weather

Temperatures have dipped over the past few nights as a cool front that brought rain on New Year’s Eve makes its way through Orange County. Recent lows in Santa Ana:

Monday: 39

Dec. 27: 49

Dec 20: 52

Average: 43

Sources: National Weather Service, WeatherData