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Yes...Believe it...It snowed in So. Cal (and I am not talking in the mountains)
We are talking Westwood (UCLA), San Fernando Valley, Malibu....
Snowplows in Malibu?
By Sharon Bernstein and Martha Groves, Times Staff Writers
7:57 PM PST, January 17, 2007
It wasn't exactly a snow day.
But Southern California's six-day cold snap took a surreal turn Wednesday as a rare snowstorm brought out snowplows to the canyons above Malibu, left parts of the San Fernando Valley with a white dusting and shut down Interstate 5.
The snow levels plunged well below 1,000 feet, blanketing the Santa Monica Mountains with snow and leaving streets and lawns in Venice, Westwood and beyond covered with ice from pea-sized hail.
A stronger than expected low pressure storm system high in the atmosphere turned a merely cold day into one of snow, rain and hail, said Jamie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The system under normal circumstance would have brought a typical rainstorm through L.A. But the cold snap turned the rain into snow and hail, she added.
"We were expecting a thunderstorm," Meier said. "The snow levels dropped a bit lower than we were expecting."
The forecast for Thursday calls for continued chilly temperatures, with lows in 30s and 40s. Snow levels overnight are expected to hover at around 1,500 feet.
Forecasters said that while snow fell in Santa Clarita, Malibu's hills and parts of the West San Fernando Valley, Westside neighborhoods were more likely to have been hit with a heavy accumulation irregularly shaped hail stones called graupels that can be confused for snow flakes.
But don't tell that to Jen Naylor.
She was Santa Monica when she called her sister in Westwood and could hear her children screaming in the background about white stuff piling up in the backyard of their Westwood home.
She raced to the neighborhood off Montana Avenue and found what looked like snow on rooftops as well as on lawns.
Her sister's kids had pulled out their ski gear and were playing in the backyard.
"This was the first time I made a snowman in L.A," said Naylor, a Los Angeles native. "We used dried cranberry for the eyes and a baby carrots for the nose because it was a baby snowman."
Westlake Village resident Joy Blanchard and her 16-year-old daughter, Sasha, experienced the what forecasters agree was the real stuff while driving on Kanan Road. She parked Lexus SUV on the side of the road Wednesday afternoon after a Costco run to take in the snow-capped peaks. They ended up building a small snowman by the side of the road.
"This, like, makes my year," said Sasha, who had seen snow only once before during a trip to Mammoth.
Snow and hail was decidedly scattered across the Southland, with the worse conditions reported in the western parts of L.A. County, from the Grapevine where Interstate 5 was shut down by snow into parts of the Valley and Westside. It's been at least 18 years since some parts of the West Valley recorded any snow....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...home-headlines
Snowplows in Malibu?
By Sharon Bernstein and Martha Groves, Times Staff Writers
7:57 PM PST, January 17, 2007
It wasn't exactly a snow day.
But Southern California's six-day cold snap took a surreal turn Wednesday as a rare snowstorm brought out snowplows to the canyons above Malibu, left parts of the San Fernando Valley with a white dusting and shut down Interstate 5.
The snow levels plunged well below 1,000 feet, blanketing the Santa Monica Mountains with snow and leaving streets and lawns in Venice, Westwood and beyond covered with ice from pea-sized hail.
A stronger than expected low pressure storm system high in the atmosphere turned a merely cold day into one of snow, rain and hail, said Jamie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The system under normal circumstance would have brought a typical rainstorm through L.A. But the cold snap turned the rain into snow and hail, she added.
"We were expecting a thunderstorm," Meier said. "The snow levels dropped a bit lower than we were expecting."
The forecast for Thursday calls for continued chilly temperatures, with lows in 30s and 40s. Snow levels overnight are expected to hover at around 1,500 feet.
Forecasters said that while snow fell in Santa Clarita, Malibu's hills and parts of the West San Fernando Valley, Westside neighborhoods were more likely to have been hit with a heavy accumulation irregularly shaped hail stones called graupels that can be confused for snow flakes.
But don't tell that to Jen Naylor.
She was Santa Monica when she called her sister in Westwood and could hear her children screaming in the background about white stuff piling up in the backyard of their Westwood home.
She raced to the neighborhood off Montana Avenue and found what looked like snow on rooftops as well as on lawns.
Her sister's kids had pulled out their ski gear and were playing in the backyard.
"This was the first time I made a snowman in L.A," said Naylor, a Los Angeles native. "We used dried cranberry for the eyes and a baby carrots for the nose because it was a baby snowman."
Westlake Village resident Joy Blanchard and her 16-year-old daughter, Sasha, experienced the what forecasters agree was the real stuff while driving on Kanan Road. She parked Lexus SUV on the side of the road Wednesday afternoon after a Costco run to take in the snow-capped peaks. They ended up building a small snowman by the side of the road.
"This, like, makes my year," said Sasha, who had seen snow only once before during a trip to Mammoth.
Snow and hail was decidedly scattered across the Southland, with the worse conditions reported in the western parts of L.A. County, from the Grapevine where Interstate 5 was shut down by snow into parts of the Valley and Westside. It's been at least 18 years since some parts of the West Valley recorded any snow....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...home-headlines
This morning I had to go somewhere what should have taken me ten minutes but it took me an hour and a half because of all the freeway construction and the heavy rain but only for a few minutes. What a mess it made of our traffic. We do not know what rain and snow are about but we are catching up fast. 
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