Snow in LA

[enigma99]

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-snow-20190221-story.html

 

It was that kind of day in some parts of Southern California, where snow dropped at extremely low elevation levels, creating a winter wonderland for a short while. Snow fell in Malibu, Pasadena, West Hollywood, Northridge, San Bernardino, Thousand Oaks and other unexpected places.

[GottmitAlex]

No kiddin'. My garden lies in eastern TJ. (140m above sea level). There is a town 20 some-odd miles east of my garden called Tecate (600m above sea level). It snowed there today. Their temps were at 1C.  This winter hit hard at its last leg. December and January, we were golden.... Historically folks, by mid February, we are in the 80's. Not this winter....

 

[enigma99]

4 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

No kiddin'. My garden lies in eastern TJ. (140m above sea level). There is a town 20 some-odd miles east of my garden called Tecate (600m above sea level). It snowed there today. Their temps were at 1C.  This winter hit hard at its last leg. December and January, we were golden.... Historically folks, by mid February, we are in the 80's. Not this winter....

 

I think this is the coldest February I can ever remember. Wet and cold... hopefully next winter will be normal

[GottmitAlex]

7 minutes ago, enigma99 said:

I think this is the coldest February I can ever remember. Wet and cold... hopefully next winter will be normal

I concur. And yes, they're calling for 20+ C next week. Let's see how my coco's withstood this late winter ordeal. (Two of them, my two green pacific talls are completely exposed. No tarps over them like the other three cocos) Here's to hope. 

[GottmitAlex]

32 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

I concur. And yes, they're calling for 20+ C next week. Let's see how my coco's withstood this late winter ordeal. (Two of them, my two green pacific talls are completely exposed. No tarps over them like the other three cocos) Here's to hope. 

Sometimes I wish my garden was at Corona, CA. Seems Cocos nucifera thrive in Cali 9B instead of Cali 10B. 

[quaman58]

Yeah, it’s been a miserable winter. I’ve experienced worse cold snaps and as much rain during my gardening “career “, but this long, cold, wet period is the worst cumulative one ever.  Yellow palms everywhere. I’ve been demoted a full grade to a 9a.    

[Gonzer]

40 degrees at 4:00pm in Oceanside. I was expecting 20 degrees when I woke but gladly it was a balmy 34 degrees at 2:00am

[Palm crazy]

. This February was the 9th coldest month on record. I've been 10 degrees below normal for the whole month.  March is looking much warmer. 

[UK_Palms]

Snow in LA!? What the hell...

This is on track to be my warmest February on record, or at least the second warmest on record. I can't ever remember it being this mild. I think we have had about 2 or 3 frosts so far in February, with no snow whatsoever, minimal rain and crystal clear, sunny skies. 

It was 18C (65F) here yesterday, with 16C (62F) forecast today. Not a cloud in the sky either. The Phoenix and Washingtonia are absolutely loving it. I even have cacti flowering outdoors at 51N right now! Surely the furthest north cacti in the world that are naturally flowering outdoors...

 

[Chester B]

Coldest February since 1989 here.  No real extreme Arctic events just a very low average temperature, depressed by about 15F.

[Silas_Sancona]

Flurries,  a dusting here and there at low elevations around Los Angeles are news worthy for sure,  but yesterday's snowfall total in Flagstaff is much more impressive:

Final **daily** total ended up at 35.9" up there, smashing the daily record of 31.0"  set in 1915.

Put in perspective, that is almost the *yearly average* of snowfall in Chicago, and is a record that has stood since Woodrow Wilson's first term as President.

Currently snowing across  much of Tucson with 1.5" recorded on the ground at the Airport as of 23 minutes ago..  

Edited February 22, 2019 by Silas_Sancona
correction

[Brett in Mission Viejo]

I had a very brief light snow flurry Yesterday at 4pm in the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains. Wet snow and did not last more than 5 minutes. At the time there was a very large Thundersnow storm happening on Saddleback mountain. Ready for springtime and so are my plants!

[TomJ]

On 2/22/2019 at 1:24 AM, quaman58 said:

Yeah, it’s been a miserable winter. I’ve experienced worse cold snaps and as much rain during my gardening “career “, but this long, cold, wet period is the worst cumulative one ever.  Yellow palms everywhere. I’ve been demoted a full grade to a 9a.    

Exactly! 

No records will be set at my house. 

From Christmas until now, with a 5 day exception end January,  my overnight lows have consistently seen mid/upper 30' or low 40's.

Daytime warm up ha been minimal as well, from mid 50's to low 60's.

Long Cold/Cool period lasting two solid months !!

At least in my slice of Vista CA.

Everything looks OK for now besides the yellowing / spotting..... but May/June is usually when the reaper comes a calling.

Tom

[Chris Chance]

I have to agree that this Feburary has been bad. Definitely seeing damage from this winter but I'm not in a good area anyway. Funny thing is the coldest I saw at my place this past week was 30f but no snow here. Just very cold rain and frosty mornings. This year I finally got a nice weather station setup to track everything. I can't wait for summer!

[gilles06]

The good thing is that will give real test for many limit plants.

[Josue Diaz]

We've had several weeks already where the temperature hasn't broken 60F. it doesn't freeze, but doesn't warm up. it just rains. Looking forward to a brief warmup this coming week before another series of rain storms hit us.

[enigma99]

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/getprod.php?wfo=lox&pil=PNS&sid=LOX

Rank    Year    Ave. High  
 
 1       1962      59.8     
 2       1911      60.2   
 3       1887      60.4
 4       2019*     60.6
 5       1922      61.1

Coldest February in 60 years in L.A. I live in NorCal but I would imagine it has been a similar record.So ready for this crap to be over, it’s depressing

Edited February 26, 2019 by enigma99

[HtownPalms]

Does the unusually cold winter have anything to do with El Nino or La Nina? We have had a warm, but super rainy winter in Southeast Texas. Definitely a tough winter for most of the country. 

[Silas_Sancona]

33 minutes ago, HtownPalms said:

Does the unusually cold winter have anything to do with El Nino or La Nina? We have had a warm, but super rainy winter in Southeast Texas. Definitely a tough winter for most of the country. 

Partially,  ....To really dive into how ENSO has played out so far this year, check out Stormsurf. com.. particularly the  3 month CFS discussion in the *Long Range* section of the "Pacific Forecast"  Some might disagree, but having followed the site's thinking for 10 years and counting, their analysis of ENSO ( El Nino / La Nina conditions) has been most closest to accurate, imo.   Somewhat technical, but once you get the knack for the different " moving parts", so to say,  it's easy to follow along with their thoughts. The site also usually updates at least twice weekly. 

In short, yea... El Nino -ish' conditions are present, but very weakly atm, and technically, the Atmosphere and Ocean did not couple correctly for this winter to be considered "Classic" positive ENSO. Most consider current conditions on the higher end of positive Neutral.. Anyway,   

A lot of the weird weather across the country / across the hemisphere this winter can be contributed to what happened when the Polar Vortex collapsed back in December.. But, that is only part ( though a bigger part ) of everything..  Somewhat abnormal conditions across the Tropical Pacific *somewhat*-realted to ENSO,  the Arctic, and the general wintertime circulation across the Northern Hemisphere  all conspired perfectly to cause chaos, and may keep doing so into the Spring. 

Interestingly, El Nino may only be getting started. Long range models ( you'll see the graph located lower down in the long range section on storm surf ) continue keeping positive conditions going through spring and summer, at least currently. If anything,  most of the 8 or so models used trend even more positive than they are currently as we head onward. Yes, this can change,  but a very interesting trend this far out since you normally see a clear downward forecast trend toward La Nina conditions right after El Nino peaks, at least most of the time.  Continued development of Kelvin Waves forming in the West Pacific will also dictate whether or not a real El Nino does develop by the Fall. Kelvin Waves help push warmer water east toward South America and drive development of El Nino.  While no forecast is set in stone at this point, by any means, something to watch in the months ahead...  Could be real interesting.

 

[HtownPalms]

Silas_sancona, Thanks for the interesting and informative reply. I agree that it will be interesting to see how it plays out going forward. I will definitely check out stormsurf.com and read more about it. Even though I only live a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico a lot of our winter weather is driven by what's going on in the Pacific Ocean.

[veeman55]

On 2/22/2019 at 2:43 AM, GottmitAlex said:

Sometimes I wish my garden was at Corona, CA. Seems Cocos nucifera thrive in Cali 9B instead of Cali 10B. 

Corona had cold rainy weather also during this deep freeze