While Miami and much of south Florida experienced the coldest December on record, the “other sunny state”, California, has been getting blasted with snow. My family and I experienced this firsthand yesterday on the drive back from Southern California to home on Interstate 5. I kept pushing to “leave now” on Sunday morning, knowing we had a very short window of opportunity left. We made it, but within 20 minutes after we passed the summit, I-5 was closed to traffic, and remains closed now.
Above are some photos (click the arrows) of our trip though the Grapevine and analysis of December weather from one of the leading forecasters in California. These were taken by my lovely wife who was riding shotgun and helping me navigate while photo documenting the trip. Not only was I-5 snowy and high winds over the Tejon Pass, when we reached the base of the mountain in the San Joaquin Valley, we were greeted with gale force+ winds that did some damage by knocking down a stoplight and some small trees in rain soaked ground, and rendered the service area, gas stations and restaurants at Laval Road without power. It also kicked up a dust storm on 99 on the way to Bakersfield too. Snow level was down to 1000 feet by my vehicle altimeter.
Even Las Vegas got snow – more from NWS LV here
My friend Jan Null, former lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in SFO, and now a Certified Consulting Meteorologist running his own service (Golden Gate Weather) has some thoughts on December:
By Jan Null CCM
On a number of fronts, the December weather across California was quite remarkable. Not only was it very wet (duh!), but temperatures were generally quite mild. Both were the result of a prolonged period of a strong low latitude jet steam far enough south to bring the state warm and very moist air from the subtropics. See http://ggweather.com/calif/dec2010.htm
Rainfall anomalies ranged from a paltry 127% of normal for San Jose to a whooping 536% of normal in Los Angeles. The City of Angels ended the month with over 10 inches of rain and locations in the surrounding mountains nearly tripled that amount. Statewide season to date amounts range from near normal to 150% of normal in the north to in excess of 200% of normal over most of the southern half of the state. See: http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/awipsProducts/RNOWRKCLI.php .
Note that many locations south of the Tehachapis are within a couple inches of having normal rainfall for entire season, even if another drop did not fall!
In the mountains the Northern and Southern Sierra Nevada Indices and the Snow water content are at or near record values for the end of December. See http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/PLOT_ESI.2011.pdf , http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/PLOT_FSI.2011.pdf and http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/PLOT_SWC.2011.pdf .
This is also reflected in the phenomenal snowpack that ranged from over 150% of normal in the northern Sierra Nevada to over 200% in the south. http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/122810snow.pdf .
The low latitude trajectory of the jet stream also contributed to mild monthly temperatures statewide. This was exacerbated by the extensive that kept average overnight monthly minima mostly in a range from 3 to 6 degrees above normal. The warmest minima anomalies were at Redding and Fresno which were 6.2 and 7.1 degrees above normal respectively.
A WORD ABOUT LA NINA
The past month also serves as precautionary reminder that all La Ninas (and El Ninos) are not created equal. While the long term averaging of California rainfall from various warm and cold tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature can give a composite look at past events, there are NO absolutes for any given year.
This is true with the current moderate/strong event which doesn’t fit the La Nina stereotype. This was also the case with December 1955 and December 1964 which both saw extensive flooding over much of the state. See http://ggweather.com/enso/2009%20enso/ca%20enso.htm .
UPDATE: Watch this video from AP. fortunately, we got way ahead of this mess!
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I used to drive that section of road regularly. The winds can be staggering through the Tehachapi’s. When the weather wants to get mean there, it can get real mean.
I now live in Tampa, and our headline is . I just can’t seem to escape global warming ….
No disrespect however, I do laugh when I see people try to drive in/on snow/ice unprepared (And untrained). Like my wife, a new driver, experienced her first “slippery” drive yesterday in the rain after dry conditions. Its, almost, as bad as snow…
The Laval road coffee stop is exactly one hour from my house in Lancaster and a frequent stop on northbound trips. No power there would be a problem. My daughter is in process of moving to San Diego. She was here Saturday evening to get a last load of items and borrow my small pick up to drive south Sunday. Watching the weather, I packed truck early, double tarped the load, got her up much earlier than she wanted, and got her on her way. Her path would be east on 138, with a 4000′ pass near Wrightwood, then onto 15 south through Cajon pass, which I don’t think closed yesterday. However, before 8 PM here in Lancaster, we had about 5 inches of snow…not completely unusual, but somewhat rare. Local authorities are not well prepared for this, other than to wait out the melt. For example, today is trash pick up, and recycle truck is usually long gone by now, but has yet to make an appearance at 11 AM.
I’m well aware WX is not climate, but northern hemisphere seems a bit chillier of late.
Indian deaths due to cold, and still the alarmists don’t get the idea. Warm good, cold bad. Cheap energy good, tax on energy bad.
We did the same thing coming from Oregon to the Bay Area, got through just in time before it was shut down last week.
Well, my above comment should have said: “I now live in Tampa, and our headline is Tampa Bay cities break records for frigid December. I just can’t seem to escape global warming ….”
One of the quotes from the article :”In many Tampa Bay locations, there has never been a colder December in the 120 years records have been kept.”
This La Nina has been a bit odd for us in TX too. While we have certainly been very dry (up until the past week and half), the temps seem to be quite a bit cooler overall. Yes, we’ve had some warm days, but also extended periods of cooler than average. In addition, models are pointing to an arctic blast coming down in the next couple weeks that could linger for around a week.
Here in the coastal mountains of SoCal, south of LA, at 2400 ft elevation, my backyard rain-gauge measured 22 inches of rain for the week before Christmas. For international readers, that’s ~560 Liters per square meter. In one week. Normal for the entire year in my backyard is about 27 inches total.
Edit question: “This was exacerbated by the extensive ^?^ that kept average”
Extensive what? I can’t quite guess the missing word …
Tell me about it. I am finding the weather is SoCal and een other parts around the world colder than ever….I hope your travel in the snow went safe though
Hmmm…and not a word about the Madden-Julian Oscillation and all the subtropical moisture that poured into S. California? Very incomplete analysis without mentioning the MDO…
Here is the UK’s December through ages.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET2.htm
So do these anomalies represent cyclical phenomena oscillating about a post-LIA uptrend from c. 1890, or mere episodic fluctuations in context of essentially random temperature events? If the former, one could give predictive odds; in the latter case, meteorologists would be constrained to say that PDO and other medium-term effects do not result from orbital, solar, or other exo-planetary influences but from complex dynamic systems whose chaotic aspects render even major outcomes unpredictable.
In face of shortening cyclical wavelengths, climate-associated amplitudes and frequencies increase. By about 2030, Earth’s global thermostat –yes, Virginia, there is such a thing– will face a long-term crash, shaken to pieces by simultaneously turning on-and-off. Absent the Younger Dryas “cold shock” which reset the post-glacial clock back some 1,500 years c. 10,700 years-before-present (YBP), our present Holocene Interglacial Epoch would likely have ended coincident with the Roman Warm of c. AD 450.
As it stands, Earth’s “long summer” has noticeably faded from about AD 1950. Generations later, climate hysterics’ “climate vs. weather” rants are immaterial. In light of reality, by 2100 Luddite sociopaths’ extraordinary malfeasance in sabotaging global energy economies over decades will be seen for the survival issue that it is.
I’m a transplanted Seattleite in Orange County and my only question is this: When is it gonna stop raining? It doesn’t rain this hard in the NW.
Well, my above comment should have said: “I now live in Tampa, and our headline is Tampa Bay cities break records for frigid December. I just can’t seem to escape global warming ….”
And that is after the UHI effect!
I’ve just been looking at the apocalyptic images coming out of Queensland, NE Australia where an area the size of France and Germany combined is under water; apparently these weather conditions there are due La Nina. It’s utterly devastating.
Meanwhile the UK has experienced its coldest December since records began… with more to come shortly
December in Ca is not usually that wet. I live in the Sierra foothills and it has been raining or cloudy most of the month and we are at about double the amount of rain to date. This accounts for the “warm” temperatures. The storms that have come through are not warmer than usual, snow levels have been about average (altitude). But it gets cold here when the nights are clear, we have had very few clear nights the last several weeks. Last night was in the mid 30’s and rainy, tonight will be clear in mid 20’s.
I’ve driven I-5 through Los Padres maybe a dozen times. Never seen it closed. Had a buddy that moved up there to a cabin for several years. He saw a lot of snow. I lived halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego and usually headed more east to Angeles National Forest for skiing at Big Bear & Baldy or out to the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, the Colorado River, Mammoth Lake up in the Sierras. Palm Springs and Las Vega is right along that track too.
I do miss living near the Pacific ocean on one side and within an hour’s drive be either in the high desert or mountains. Mt Palomar observatory has a great campground too. I saw the most incredible Perseids meteorite display in the high desert (Joshua Tree National Monument) back in the 1970’s Never forget it. Climbed up on top of a huge rock and watched laying on my back in a sleeping bag. They were like a flashbulb in the sky every few seconds and lasted for hours.
Vuk etc
Here is the UK’s December through ages.
Interesting…it looks like there was a larger temperature increase for the 18th & 19th centuries but nearly flat for the 20th century.
MikeEE
Correction…the 18th century was pretty flat too, perhaps negative.
MikeEE
And then up in Alaska, pushing record warmth — http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/aktrimmed.php
I measured 5 inches of snow this morning in the town of Mojave at the western edge of the Mojave Desert. When I-5 closes, its traffic gets rerouted through here via 14 and 58. But 58 goes over the Tehachapi pass and that was closed last night. So there was a 6 mile parking lot of cars waiting for the road to open again. This usually happens once or twice per year, but not this early in the season.
Up until the last few days, Anchorage has typically been around 5 deg F below average since Sept, following the (SFAIK) about the coolest and wettest summer on record.
We saw snow in Oceanside in 68. Did not last or stick, but Oceanside is just where it name suggests.
Jakers, I remember back around 1976/7 that it snowed in N. Florida while the news services were showing pictures of people wandering around Alaska in their shirt sleeves. As the Igors say: “What goes around, comes around.”