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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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It's rather disgusting to me to see how particularly msnbc thinks the rest of the world is interested in California's weather forecast.
Anything in the northeast U.S. and California needs to disseminated to entire world population. When New York wipes its butt, we can learn about it on msnbc.
This myopic bias is why I visit websites like Aljazeera, BBC (UK), RT.com (Russia Today) so I can get a more balanced news presentation. I'm sure these websites have their own biases, but at least its a different bias.
Well when you go to "U.S. Breaking News" guess what ...... it will be news about the U.S.. For any news that may interest someone else in the world try "world news". Then if your interests are narrow try "regional news".
WOW...PAN
Got Angry ..Since Nature Boy Al Gore..
sold Out To BIG OIL AL-JIZZ-on-ZEERA...
Oh Well..AL's just out of the closet.... of of His BIG Corporate Jet..
JEEZERRA Has WARMED...Al GORE's GLOBAL PALM...
Be glad, at least you have heat.
Move to Central Oregon...then you'll know cold. California's night time lows are our daytime highs...teens and single digits at night.
Hey...whatever you want to call it; be it "weirding" or "climate change"...climate will always be changing...the earth was here long before people came to being and will more than likely it will still be here long after we all die out. Man has no ultimate power over the Earth and its weather, climate change, warming, cooling, weirding or whatever Michael Moore or Al Gore or the Obama Adminstration wants to call it.
They keep coming up with these weird new terms, like "weirding"
Well Boo Hoo, I hope all those liberal california democrate Obama lovers freeze their asses off.
BooHoo,Everybody in California is not a Democrat.I love my state of California,the entire state.But I hate cold weather and can't wait for the triple digit summer..
I am a liberal Democrate Obama lover and I am loving the chilly weather!! I wish it would last through February.
What do you all expect with Paylousy and Frakenstien in the state? Like putting ice cubes in the lemonade.
Time for some Brown weather control legislation.
Our patriotic and law bidding gun owner’s, such as The Gun Owners of America, The National Rifle Association, The Citizens Defense League should not be held responsible for the acts of a few gun owners.
However, it is their moral responsibility and that of Gun Makers, Gun Sellers, Gun Buyers and Gun Owners to help protect our children and all US Citizens from gun violence.
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the President,
Congress and every mother and father in the USA to protect their children from
gun violence.
Therefore, I recommend a very easy solution to curtail this gun violence.
We the people of the USA should tax each gun made 100%, tax
each gun sold 100%, tax each gun violent video game or movie 100% and tax each
gun owner $20.00 a year for gun safety.
The income from all of these taxes should go to the protection of our children from gun violence in our schools and other public places, (i.e. This tax money will be used by public schools for hiring school guards, school entrance surveillance and detection, anti-bulling aid and by the GOA, NRA and CDL for giving gun owners
yearly Gun Safety Classes).
The President and Congress can easily adopt this Gun Tax without all the 2nd Amendment issues. Furthermore, it would help the GOA, NRA and CDL and all of their law bidding gun owners and support their call
for gun safety and gun violence.
Lastly, if a person has a gun and does not pay the $20.00 a year tax they are now a tax evader and a non-law bidding citizen and should be prosecuted under Federal and IRS Tax Laws.
Wrong thread dumbazz.
Our patriotic and law bidding gun owner’s, such as The Gun Owners of America, The National Rifle Association, The Citizens
Defense League should not be held responsible for the acts of a few gun owners.
However, it is their moral responsibility and that of Gun
Makers, Gun Sellers, Gun Buyers and Gun Owners to help protect our children and
all US Citizens from gun violence.
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the President,
Congress and every mother and father in the USA to protect their children from
gun violence.
Therefore, I
recommend a very easy solution to curtail this gun violence.
We the people of the USA should tax each gun made 50% - 100%,
tax each gun sold 50% - 100%, tax each gun violent video game or movie 50% - 100%
and tax each gun owner $20.00 a year for gun safety.
The income from all of these taxes should go to the
protection of our children from gun violence in our schools and other public
places, (i.e. This tax money will be
used by public schools for hiring school guards, school entrance surveillance
and detection, anti-bulling aid and by the GOA, NRA and CDL for giving gun
owners yearly Gun Safety Classes).
The President and Congress can easily adopt this Gun Tax
without all the 2nd Amendment issues. Furthermore, it would help the GOA, NRA
and CDL and all of their law bidding gun owners and support their call for gun
safety and gun violence.
Lastly, if a person has a gun and does not pay the $20.00 a
year tax they are now a tax evader and a non-law bidding citizen and will prosecuted
under Federal and IRS Tax Laws.
How about just making programs around for the mentally ill. I am already taxed to death. Maybe we need to get rid of Congress and their new PAY raise. Easy solution to the people going into schools and shooting, put someone in there thats ARMED to protect the kids. Just like the Sandy Hook shooter, he seen the cop with the gun and killed himself.
All illegal aliens should go back to Mexico were the weather is warmer.
Who cares? So grab an extra blanky, snuggle up with somebody, and watch some football. Buck up and act like regular people for a while out there.
God Bless Global warming. We are at 15 today headed for -16 tonight and someone is whining about 30 degrees, get out a blanket.
Has our buddy Al commented on this? How many remember 'THE OZONE HOLE'? Has that been fixed ? Or was it a conspiracy to ban FREON because the patent(s) on FREON were running out and any chemical company would be able to produce it and DuPONT would lose their MONOPOLY ? By the way, we are now getting an overdose of UV light if we are too close to WHAT ? Those efficient CFLs that contain MERCURY. Doesn't the breaking of one of these require a HazMat team to clean up ? Would taking some into the hallowed halls of Congress be regarded as TERRORISM ? China and Korea have been getting RECORD cold weather and that will probably be blamed on 'GLOBAL WARMING' Well maybe not----we coulds blame GWB. And rather than 'Global Warming' let's call it 'CLIMATE CHANGE' to cover the situation no matter what happens. How many of you out there on either side know what % of the atmosphere is CO2 ? You should notice that no one ever tells you; because you might start to question what you are told about 'GREENHOUSE GASSES" While you are in the research mode, you might also look for data telling you how much energy is required to produce 100,000 Btus of ethanol and how much of your TAXPAYER money (subsidies) is required to make it PROFITABLE for BIG AGRIBUSINESS to produce ethanol. Take all taxes off BOOZE and you will get an idea how much it REALLY costs to produce. Forcing the use of ethanol as a fuel was NEVER to help the environment, it was to help Big Agribusiness. Quit subsidizing ethanol and see what happens. By the way, using corn to produce ethanol causes FOOD prices to rise as in 'MORE PROFIT' and more hungry people in poor countries. Back to Al Gore---how do you that believed in him now feel since he sold out to BIG OIL ? The 500 or so millions paid for his (TV ?) network came from the oil profits of Quattar. That network was in no way worth 500 million----what do you think Al Jazeera was paying for ? Could it have been Al Gore ? What did you think of 'That EVIL RICH Mitt Romney' ? Al Gore is now as rich as (or richer) than Mitt Romney. RE: Agribusiness subsidies----Republicans voted for them also---remember Senator Bob Dole before the Viagra commercials ? Back to 'Climate Change'---the earth's weather has been shifting back and forth forever and hopefully will continue to do so. Unscrupulous people will continue to profit because of all "The Useful Idiots" as they were called by one of the founders of Communism. In a few years we will be told about 'The Coming Ice Age' and taxes will be raised on something because it's contributing to the Global fall in temperature. Fossil fuels will probably be blamed for that too, as "NEW RESEARCH' will link the burning of fossil fuels to preventing the Sun's warmth from penetrating the atmosphere. A 'Coming Ice Age' was being predicted in the mid 1970's, whatever did happen to THAT prediction ?
OOOOOh, California gets cold in the winter, shocking?...
I've lived here for almost 45 years, this is hardly the coldest winter I recollect. Heck, it's barely rained...I miss the winter weather of my childhood.
Its FREEZING, last night, at the club all of the ladies were wearing full length minks and men our Lavin Collar Coats ... coming home, I had to put the top on the SL up. Once home I had to turn the outdoor heaters on to keep the steam rising from the pool so the Harbour View wasnt blocked. If this doesnt stop Im going to have to use the automatic pool cover or use the gas heater to maintain the solar/salt pools 86 degree temp for my daily swim ... and last night we had to bring out the chinchilla bed throws to cover us since silk sheets just arent enough. How can it be a freezing 60 degrees in January?
OK, Im joking (a bit). Residents of Southern California know we are spoiled ... rotten ... weather wise. We are very capable of putting on a sweater. Unlike the latest empty headed hooker Kardashian/Hilton/Bimbo, we dont have to expose ourselves. We have umbrellas, blankets and bedding. Our homes have modern HVAC systems and are insulated, just like yours, so we dont have to burn logs for heat like NBC would like to make you believe.
The big issue is agricultural. When California gets a freeze, just like Florida, it costs the nation in GNP since we grow and export allot of Fruit and Nuts.(The Country might have to export EVERYONE in Washington DC to make up for this loss. .. (Leno and Letterman should steal this line))
This will be great for Californias Ski Resorts, (especially Tahoe) which are (ok compared to everywhere in the US except Utah, Colorado, and Sun Valley) pretty good.
California is beautiful. We know we are spoiled, yet we are always happy when you have good weather. (its our motto: Have a nice day!) Stay warm everyone, we will (give your extra clothes to the homeless) Lets hope the AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS stay warm here and nationwide for our GNP, and may the Sandy Victims stay warm and find shelter.
And ... come ... visit us soon ... the old "stay a spell" ... its true. The only visits Californians dont like from friends and family are short ones ... theres so much to do. Californians are very welcoming to others and we love our State and letting you enjoy it too!
So glad I don't live in California any more. I lived there for 21 years and the traffic, taxes and high cost of living was just too much for me. Some people don't mind it, but I'm happy to live a quiet life without all the traffic nightmares and high costs.
In Glendale, AZ we are freezing too! As of 10pm MST the temperature is 37 with a low of 27 tonite. Burr! This is unusual for January in Arizona.
My husband and I visited San Diego over the Christmas Holidays. We had lived there for 20 years and are well accustomed to the vagaries of the weather. We left December 31 at 8 a.m., temp 62 degrees and sunshine. Arrived in St. Louis, temp 36 degrees and sleeting. Drove north to home in Iowa, temp 12 degrees with 3 inches of snow on the ground. The weather here in the Midwest is even crazier than California. Five days ago it was 60 degrees! Tonight it's 20 and will get down to 10. Such is life. At least the wind isn't blowing at 25 mph -- the wind chill factor would be unbearable!
55 degrees is not "frigid" for Southern Californians; I've lived in Los Angeles for almost 40 years so I know. It's a very common temperature in the winter. The high in the afternoon is often a little warmer than 55 but it's hardly a freak event for 55 to be the high. Below-freezing temperatures "are" unusual but they're not unheard of.
We just had a brief hailstorm here in Texas. Yesterday was warm with rain, followed by cold with rain. Keeps ya guessin'.
Used to be bird paradise here. Last summer no birds. Global warming is real.
That's what weather is Reader, changeable...warm followed by cold followed by warm, ad infinitim. See what the Jet Stream has been doing lately, bringing all that moisture in and then the cold air coming down. Weather is real, global climate change is not.
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/GSSLOOPS/ecir.html
The only thing you will get in California is ---TB----Spread by illegal immigrants
The last major global warming occurred in the 10th century AD. Unfortunately, no one recorded whether there were "weirding" effects accompanying that warming. My guess would be that there were.