A cold front turbocharged by tropical precipitation brought rare snow to some urban Southern California rooftops and heavy rain that prompted multiple swift-water rescues Saturday.
In Michigan, the number of homes and businesses without power dropped to below 350,000 Saturday from nearly 800,000 Thursday, according to according to grid tracker PowerOutage.us.
In California, the mix of a relatively warm atmospheric river and cold air from the Gulf of Alaska meant that many residents of high desert communities and Southern California valleys, including Antelope Valley and the San Gabriel Valley, woke up to a fresh dusting of snow Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Video also appeared to show snow falling Saturday in Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, in San Bernardino County.
Unheard of amounts of snow were recorded in mountains from the Sierra Nevada to Southern California’s Peninsular Ranges that stretch into Mexico.
In the last four days, nearly 5 feet of snow was recorded at Donner Summit, the University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted. In that same period, Mount Baldy, near downtown L.A., measured more than 3 feet, and Mount Laguna in San Diego County recorded more than 2 feet, according to the National Weather Service.
At Mountain High Resort in Wrightwood, about 75 miles east of L.A., more than 6 feet of snow fell in less than a week — with 5 of those feet in a 24-hour period. So much snow fell that the resort said it closed Saturday to “use what available staff we have to dig out and clean up.”
The snow, rain and wind prompted road closures and flooding near rivers and washes throughout California as the storm moved south and east from Oregon overnight.
Heavy snow and ice were to blame for the closure of Interstate 5’s Grapevine, which is the main roadway to San Francisco. It would remain closed at least through late Sunday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The city of Big Bear Lake warned…
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