Winter storms likely to bring Los Angeles its longest cold snap in almost 20 years
Los Angeles is on track to experience its longest cold snap in almost 20 years this week as another winter storm blasts the region with more low-elevation snow, strong winds and significant rain.
If forecasts pan out, Wednesday will be the eighth day in a row that downtown L.A. hasn’t topped 60 degrees — a chilly streak not seen in the city since 2005, according to the National Weather Service’s daily forecast discussion.
Los Angeles’ normal average for the month is 69 degrees, making this recent streak well below normal, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.
“It’s been pretty darn cold,” Kittell said.
Though this streak could tie a similar eight-day cold snap in January 2005, it pales in comparison to the longest on record: 20 straight days under 60 degrees in 1949, according to Kittell.
Slight warming expected to begin by Thursday should break the streak far short of that record, Kittell said.
Skiing within the City of Los Angeles? That’s what five friends accomplished Sunday when they descended the slopes of the city’s tallest mountain.
The lower temperatures, coupled with the moisture from a low-pressure system hanging over the state, could once again bring low-elevation snowfall to Southern California after last week’s rare event brought fresh powder to areas even lower than 1,500 feet, such as near the Hollywood sign.
Foothill communities including La Crescenta-Montrose, La Cañada Flintridge and Santa Clarita, as well as in the Antelope Valley, could see some snow by Wednesday morning, Kittell said.
“The amount of moisture is less, so we don’t expect a total repeat of what we had last week,” he said. “But they could see more snow.”
Snow levels Tuesday afternoon are forecast between 3,500 and 4,000 feet in elevation but are expected to drop rapidly to as low as 1,500 feet early Wednesday. At the highest elevations, up to 2 feet could fall by Wednesday from this latest storm on top of multiple feet on the ground from the last system — from which officials and residents are still working to recover.
A winter storm warning is in effect Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday for the mountains of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, with reduced visibility from snow likely to make travel “difficult to impossible,” the warning said. The weather is likely to cause disruptions along the Grapevine, the highest portions of Interstate 5 and the 14 Freeway going into the Antelope Valley, Kittell said.
Rain and snow are expected to continue through Wednesday; the end of the week and weekend should be dry, forecasts show.
“The roadways will be the biggest concern,” he said.
San Bernardino County has declared a state of emergency because of the weather.
“The weight of recent snow combined with strong winds may down trees and power lines,” the winter storm warning for the mountains said.
Rainfall in lower elevations is also expected to be notable but manageable, Kittell said. The coasts and valleys can expect around 1 inch of rain through Wednesday from this storm system, and the foothills and mountains could see up to 3 inches.
California’s deadly storm season continued Friday as the first of two atmospheric river storms descended on the state, prompting evacuation orders.
Peak rain and snowfall are expected late Tuesday through Wednesday morning, Kittell said.
The latest storm has continued to cause damage across the region — despite being weaker than the previous system — with reports of downed trees, pockets of power outages and small mudslides early Tuesday.
L.A. firefighters responded to a dangerous debris flow on Mulholland Drive, closing the road between Deep Canyon Drive and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. The mud and debris damaged at least one home and one utility pole, but no one was injured, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Residents of some nearby homes were “calmly evacuated as a precaution,” the department said.
Due to the two recent storms, the city’s Street Services bureau has been inundated, with more than 2,000 calls for service in the last six days, according to Hector Banuelos, a street tree superintendent with Bureau of Street Services’ Urban Forestry Division.
“It’s been a bit crazy,” Banuelos said Tuesday. He said his division typically gets 20 or 30 calls a day to deal with downed trees and broken branches, among other tree issues — but this last week has seen a daily average of more than 300. Calls during the last storm “just exploded” on Saturday and continued at extremely high rates through Monday, he said. The high winds were especially rough on trees, uprooting many throughout the city, Banuelos said.
Scenes from across Southern California, where a powerful winter storm dumped heaps of snow and record-setting rain.
“We’re at a little lull right now,” he said. “It’s kind of giving us a chance to catch our breath.”
He said he’s hopeful the next 24 hours won’t bring significant weather to L.A., so his team can catch up on the almost 400 calls to which they still haven’t been able to respond.
“We’re busy, I have crews out right now,” Banuelos said. “We’re trying to get a handle on things.”
Weather officials forecast a “warming and drying trend” beginning Thursday, though more wet weather could return sometime next week.
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