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Gregory Bull / AP
Esteban Gasca of Chula Vista, Calif., takes a picture after forming the Spanish word, "amo," or "love," with rocks on a beach as clouds from a nearby cold front make their way inland on Friday in San Diego. Few people frequented the city's famous beaches as Southern California braces for a cold snap expected to drop temperatures to a six-year low.
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET: Californians are bundling up with sweaters and gloves and stocking up on firewood as they brace for several nights of freezing temperatures.
The National Weather Service is forecasting morning frost on San Diego beaches. Big Sur, on the central coast, prepared for daytime highs almost 20 degrees below Boston's. Even the snowbird haven of Palm Springs faced the possibility of freezing temperatures at night.
In addition, San Diego zookeepers turned up the heat for chimpanzees and some farmers broke out wind machines and took other steps to protect crops from freezing.
Freeze warnings were in effect in San Diego County valleys and deserts Saturday morning with lows in the 20s and 30s, the weather service said.
In Sonoma County, homeless shelters started handing out extra warm clothes on Friday to protect people from freezing overnight temperatures.
Arizona faces its coldest night time temperature in years, threatening crops. Meanwhile, the weather is spring-like in parts of the East Coast. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
Morning temps fell into the 20s and 30s in many areas, and much lower in the mountains. A low of 12 degrees was recorded in the Big Bear mountain resort east of Los Angeles.
By midday Saturday, the temperature had warmed to the mid-50s – balmy for most everywhere else in the country but frigid in Southern California.
In an official weather advisory on Saturday, the National Weather Service wrote: "The bad news for those people who don't like cold temperatures is that any moderation in these frigid conditions is forecast to be slow heading into next week, with below-normal readings continuing."
It was, the Weather Service noted, a contradiction: The West Coast, usually mild-weathered, was uncharacteristically cool. Parts of the East Coast, by contrast, boasted spring temperatures. The Appalachians could see highs in the 60s and 70s -- at least 20 degrees above average.
'Crazy busy' at firewood store
Some customers drove more than an hour to buy firewood.
"It's crazy busy here," said Renea Teasdale, office manager at The Woodshed in Orange, south of Los Angeles.
Still, it was business as usual as much of the state contended with temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s.
"It's still sunny Southern California, and I'm going to work on my legs all year long," said Linda Zweig, a spokeswoman for the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which is hosting a 5-kilometer (about 3-mile) run north of San Diego on Sunday. The lifelong San Diego-area resident is prone to wearing two sweatshirts when the temperature drops but refuses to give up on shorts.
In the San Joaquin Valley, the heart of California's citrus production, growers prepared for another round of freezing temperatures late Friday after seeing little crop damage Thursday night.
They run wind machines and water to protect their fruit, which can raise the temperature in a grove by up to 4 degrees, said Paul Story, director of grower service at California Citrus Mutual. Existing moisture, sporadic rain and cloud cover can also help keep in heat.
Andy Coker, an assistant manager for the Limoneria Company farm in Santa Paula, a leading grower of avocados, lemons and oranges, told NBC Bay Area that he would be pulling “all nighters, all weekend probably for the next four or five days,“ trying to keep hundreds of acres of avocado trees warm.
Snow shut a 40-mile stretch of a major highway north of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, forcing hundreds of truckers to spend the cold night in their rigs and severing a key link between the Central Valley and Los Angeles.
The California Highway Patrol reopened the Grapevine segment of Interstate 5 some 17 hours later.
After a cold blast in the southwestern U.S., the forecast predicts warmer weather in the coming week. Meanwhile, the Midwest remains entrenched in a deep freeze. The Weather Channel's Greg Forbes reports.
Associated Press writers Gosia Wozniacki in Fresno and Chris Carlson in Orange contributed to this report. NBC Bay Area also contributed reporting.
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I hope all them global warming fans out there did not use their heaters and contribute to the problem they think exists.
I work in this weather all the time, and it's not really a big deal. Climate change? HURRRRDDDDDURRRRR. Climate changes all the @!$%#ing time. We caused global warming? Yeah right! Super volcanos have done millions times more damage than what carbon emissions have caused, stupid environmentalist whackjobs.
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Golliegee, looks like you're in a white out!
Global warming has been caused by deforestation and pollution. And anyone who pollutes the Earth should be held accountable. The Earth has been polluted so extensively, that there is no practical way to remove it all. And those who don't think that this planet is showing signs of dying from what we have done aren't paying attention.
The Earth's Magnetic Field reflects much of the excessive Sunlight, but so does the atmosphere. Through the process known as photosynthesis, trees and plants on land, and phytoplankton and other plant life that grows near the surface of our oceans and other bodies of water, produce the oxygen that sustains life. However, our forests have been reduced by 60% and, due to pollution, there are about 160 dead zones in the oceans that no longer produce oxygen. As a result, the atmosphere has shrunk about 15%. Due to the centrifugal force created by the Earth's turning on its axis, the atmosphere is thickest at the Equator and thinnest at the poles, and is now so thin at the poles that too much infra-red light Sunlight is melting the Polar Caps. And because the atmosphere's thickness shifts from place to place, the planet is now heating and cooling in ways that are causing it to have severe and often deadly weather.
The Oceans are so polluted by phosphates, alkaloids, nitrates, mercury, oil, chemical dispersants, oil eating bacteria, sunken rusting ships, nuclear radiation, the excess carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide that is being absorbed into them, etc., that large numbers of its creatures have been dying, or behaving abnormally, due to disease or brain damage.
I live near the Chesapeake Bay and used to consume a lot of its seafood. But heavy pollution has resulted in toxins showing up in the seafood. Besides the previously mentioned toxins, high levels of Vibrio and Pfiesteria have shown up in the seafood. And both have caused serious illness in some humans from being exposed to the water, or consuming the seafood, and Vibrio has caused death. After doing the research and learning about the toxins, I've stopped eating all seafood from everywhere. And since the Chesapeake Bay is so polluted, I won't swim in it any more.
Also, since sea salt is made by evaporating sea water until only the minerals and contaminants are left, and there is no way to remove the toxins, I don't recommend using it.
We have to stop polluting and clean up what we can, or watch our planet die.
We must all remember, as we have been told. It is not global warming it is climate change, as if the climate has never changed on planet earth before. Geez! Since we cant stop it, don't you think it would be a good idea to figure out how to live with it?
I'm sure they did. The global warming fans are the biggest hypocrites of them all.
If it gets cold or warmer it's global warming or climate change or whatever d~mb @$$ label you want to put on it .
Oh, no. Global Warming wasn't enough, now we have to worry about Global Cooling?
OK, it's been years since it's been like this is California, but it's not unheard of. In fact, in the 60's & 70's, we routinely had frost multiple times each winter. Before they were banned for air quality reasons, citrus farmers used to have what were called smudge pots in the orchards - I don't know what they burned in them, but the smoke was nasty... hence the name. Still, they helped keep the groves from freezing. I also clearly remember walking around the beach one evening in the early 80's, and it was 24*... so guess what... this has happened before.
Frost? There was a snowfall in San Gabriel Valley that killed back all my banana trees!!!! Of course that was back when the big climate worry was the earth was on the verge of a new ice-age.
Well, I'm just on the other side of Hwy 5 from Mission Bay in San Diego, and it looks like a gorgeous day outside to me, even if it's a bit chilly by our standards. The yard is perfectly green, the flowers I put in two weeks ago are doing well, and I'm off to the Farmers Market.
Happy Saturday, everyone, and GO PACKERS!
@bginsc:They used diesel fuel in them that's why they were so smokey.
@SDAim: As a fellow cheesehead who now lives in Nevada I miss those mild winters,but I don't miss those 90 minute 30 mile commutes. GO PACK!!!
its global warming
As a third generation Californian, this is nothing that unusual. I have even seen snow in San Diego, in my life-time. Snow over the grapevine in winter is common.
OH NO!!! It's global warming!!! /rolls eyes .. you people are idiots
Yep... global warming is a bitch, ain't it? LOL The problem with this whole "global warming" scam is that it belies the earth's own geological record of warming and cooling periods throughout thousands of years. Earth climate is cyclical...and you aren't going to observe a full cycle in ONE lifetime. Sure, it makes great political fodder, and has made Al Gore a world celebrity, but it's a total lie. Just two years ago they were saying Texas was into a hundred year drought...and in one year our lakes were full again. Man's perspective on the weather and climate are just too damn short-sighted. But, yeah, go ahead and buy all that expensive green technology crap if it makes you feel better. It sure won't help the cold in San Diego or the heat in NYC. The weather is just one of many things MAN can't control.
Global warming right ? Oh. I forgot it's 'climate change'. Al Gore and the left wing wackos.
...........Good old global warming at it again............
Can't believe the number of lefties out there who make everything ... and I mean EVERYTHING ... political. Get a life.
Ignorance is bliss.
It is so enjoyable to read that really no discussion of GEOENGINEERING or WEATHER MODIFICATION industry - just sides battling about global warming. Well folks, what I suggest is that do just a bit more research and become aware of how the world actually works, then you will have the ability to actually comment on the subject.
The military's agenda is stated fact of owning the weather by 2025! "Evergreen" is a transportation business that carries cargo (nanoparticle compounds, metals, etc), which spreads in the air to induce weather changes that are planned, guided and finally unleashed over selected areas for a desired result. Various ground, sea and air based radar, microwave and other devices stimulate those toxic cloud systems so as to release the desired payload over unsuspecting victims.
The business of weather has become a military operation controlled by ill individuals such as David Keith, a GeoEngineering professior out of Canada.
So, before you provide baseless comments to this post, DO YOUR RESEARCH!
being a rain maker or such an isolated event is not the same as global pattern shift . earth's been doin' it for 5 billiion years [ since it cooled down enough ] without the millitary's help . it will be just fine after all of mankind has gone and new species populate the planet. global warming is junk science and means nothing in the long term ,mankind is at best a stumbling child king knowing very little of the knowledge available
GeoEngineering IS GLOBAL. Do the homework.
Mythbusters debunked Geoengineering, and HAARP as well.
Another cold winter up here in Oregon, they got el nino wrong (no surprise there). Many of our snowiest winters have been in the last decade. I still remember when Al Gorejazzera said the ski industry was over, and since then have been banner years. The warmers refuse to understand that weather and climate are dynamic and cyclical, and climate is not affected by your expectations. Read history about weather events, and you will see an obvious agenda from sites like the weather channel. They seem to want to rewrite history to gel with the angle they are pushing.
We're just a tiny snapshot in time, enjoy the climate we have, not the climate you think we should have.
Well, it starts on Extreme Weather! I beleive GOD is going to show America this year (2013), weather never seen before and disaters of all portions as BHO our President down to America Citizens who have and are still turning away from GOD. The Bible states from GOD, any nation that turns away from me, I will to turn from that Nation and what Nation divides Isreal I will to divide that nation.
For all of the Nay Sayers and Non-Belivers, 2012 was worst than 2011 and 2011 was worst than 2010. I can't imaige what 2014 and 2015 will be like, either. We belivers are letting a hand full of Non-believers and the Left, take GOD out of everything.
In the end they will see their wrong but it will be to late for them. Repent of your sins and ask GOD to come into your life and be saved and let GOD take over your life.
Bruce is a fallen angel and a follower of Satan. Beware of him and his kind.
COME ON... What about all the wheenie baby global warming creatures? This can not happen in our world anymore. I am in Utah and the cycles are no different now than when I was born here 55 yrs ago. I was 12 when our worst storm put us without power for 13 days. I also remember it being so hot we hit the hundred mark and our bikes fell over in the soft parking lot pavement. Desederada says the earth is moving along as it should and I believe it. Give us back our coal mining jobs so people can live again. It will still get hot and cold and storms in divers places. That's my life's experience.
the earth being over 6 billion years old , has seen radical climate change many times . just in the past 50 million years there have been over 20 ice ages of varied degrees and it has warmed to near tropical conditons as well .. there were palms ,ferns, and giant redwoods in the mountains in wyoming 50 million years ago and it sure wasn't grandma's SUV that caused it , this is normal cyclic change of the earths own patterns and NOTHING will change it , that doesn't mean we should not try to pollute less or quit trashin' up the place , it only makes sense to try to clean it up , but it makes NO sense to howl about false junk science and wring our hands like doomsayers. learn to live with it and all of mankind will be happier
funny, it doesn't look a day over 4.5 billion
Stay out of California---TB---is being spread at Ventura Beach by illegal imigrants--you are at risk--but do not come to our beloved state--FLORIDA
Dont worry ... I left Florida for California and I would never go back if paid.
Wow, first the Holy land and now Cali- must be a sign of the end times
I live in Lancaster Ca. not too far from where the space shuttles land sometimes.The weather in the desert can shoot up and down so fast,last night,it was 11 here and this morning at 9.00 is 35.but yes,it does seem a lot colder all ready this year then last,or maybe it's just me and my old bones don't like the cold.that's why I moved here in the 70's from Maryland,give me the sun any day...
In 1970 december through January 1971 We had almost identicle temps here in so. cal. Freezing at night and and only into the 50's during daylight.
The next month on February 9th, 71 we got slammed with the sylmar earthquake of 6.6. What that quake did was extensive damage to the San Andreas fault, not to mention 2 hospitals, a dam, numerous freeway over passes and only 65 deaths amazingly.
I am guessing something of the same nature as one is due. All I can say is I am semi ready and need to be more.
Johnny,I think you are right,I was smack in the middle of the 1994 Northridge earth quake and we are way overdue.This might be the year.Stay grounded California.
You all are wrong - guns caused this.
Dang you ammunition!