Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you have a warm heart today as our chilly air mass has arrived. We observed rain, hail, thunder and lightning and gusty west to northwest winds on Monday. Heavy mountain snows occurred and as I wrote this column at 5 p.m. Monday, the snow level had dropped to 1,000 feet and wet snow was being reported in our nearby foothills. Snow was also reported on the Long Beach Peninsula at 5 p.m. as the leading edge of the coldest air was approaching.
The coldest and heaviest showers were forecast to reach us by midnight, lasting into early morning today. If you slept in, you may have missed those snowflakes. It was possible that anywhere in our county could have received a trace to a couple of inches. However, you know the drill with showers, they are hit and miss.
This was not a particularly big snow event but nevertheless, it doesn’t take much to get us weather geeks excited and I’m sure some of you as well. The low responsible for the brief winter weather will quickly drop south today and sunshine should be out this afternoon as temperatures rise to 40 degrees and higher.
The big news is early Wednesday morning under clear skies and a chilly air mass, we will drop well into the 20s and any moisture in shady areas will freeze and black ice may be a problem. This isn’t a dry air mass like we get with those easterly winds, this is air off the ocean so the humidity will be higher tonight. Watch for frost and ice.
