L.A. chills out as cold snap breaks record days of warm weather

A cold snap settling over Los Angeles will stick around all week, forecasters said, marking the end of a significant streak of warm weather.

On Saturday, a high of 62 degrees in downtown L.A. ended a record 200 straight days of high temperatures over 70 degrees.

“The streak began on April 21 and continued through Nov. 6,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “The old record for downtown Los Angeles was 190 days, and that was in 1885. That’s a 135-year-old record.”

The week ahead will continue to see daytime temperatures in the 60s and overnight lows in the 40s and 50s, thanks to a cold air mass moving through the region. Temperatures will warm three to six degrees each day, but even that won’t bring them up to seasonal norms.

“Wednesday’s high temps will mostly be 2 to 3 degrees below normal, which is an improvement over today’s temps, which will be 10 to 15 degrees below normal,” the weather service said Monday.

Some parts of the Southland were blanketed in snow during weekend storms, including the San Gabriel Mountains and portions of the Grapevine through the 5 Freeway, where ice amassed so quickly that California Highway Patrol officers had to escort traffic for several hours Sunday evening. A dusting of snow remained in the area Monday morning.

The weather service issued a hard freeze watch for portions of San Luis Obispo County and the Antelope Valley through Tuesday morning, which could see sub-freezing temperatures as low as 26 degrees.

“Any farmer or grower needs to protect their crops,” Sweet said, “and if anyone has any sensitive plants, they need to bring those indoors.”

The warning also indicates hypothermia danger for unprotected pets and livestock, and noted that damage to outdoor plumbing is possible.

“To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes, they should be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly,” the warning states. “Those that have in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above-ground pipes to protect them from freezing.”

Friday could bring a slight chance of rain, Sweet said, primarily in areas north of Los Angeles. By Sunday, it will be warmer and sunnier as a high-pressure ridge builds in the East.

The cooler weather is a marked change for the region: The last three months were the state’s hottest on record, according to a new report, with more than 700 daily high temperature records broken across California in September and October.