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Snow to low levels in Los Angeles

Anthony Sharwood

California is in the grip of what seems an endless stream of winter storms, and the latest has delivered snow to low levels in and around Los Angeles, including to the iconic Hollywood sign.

As anyone who has flown in or out of LA knows, the city is flanked by very high snowy mountains, including the San Gabriel and San Bernadino ranges, both of which rise to over 3000 metres. For comparison, Australia's highest peak Mt Kosciuszko is just 2228 metres.

But only very rarely over the years has snow been reported in downtown Los Angeles, which sits around 100 metres above sea level.

The Hollywood sign sits at 480 metres, near the top of Mt Lee at 520 metres, and that seems to be about the level to which this week's snow has fallen.

So while coastal and downtown LA haven't seen snow this week, spectacular images have emerged of the city's higher suburbs and nearby hills.

The snow was accompanied by strong winds and there was also exceptionally heavy rain. You know that giant stormwater canal where they've filmed loads of car race scenes in movies like Grease? That's actually the LA River and last weekend it looked like this.

You can see the latest storm's relentless moisture feed in the video below.

There were even reports of snow at Disneyland, although with the theme park's elevation of just 40 metres in the suburb of Anaheim, it was more likely "graupel" – a type of hail which falls in soft pellets, as you can see on the person’s outstretched hand in the vide below.

As you'd expect, California's 33 ski resorts are enjoying a bumper season. At Kirkwood, near Lake Tahoe, they reported a mindboggling 107 inches (2.7 metres) of snow in the last week and 526 (13 metres) for the season to date.

No, that's not a typo. Thirteen metres of snow have fallen in the winter season of 2022/23 to date, and while that snow obviously compacts, there is still a reported base of 174 inches (4.4 metres), which is a seriously deep snowpack.

California has of course been in severe drought for years, with only 16.6% of the state currently drought-free. This recent storm, plus several more earlier this winter*, will likely ease that situation to some degree as America moves into spring.

*Australia's BoM classifies the seasons by months, whereas in America, seasons are defined by the period between solstices and equinoxes. So the current US winter is Dec 21, 2022 to Mar 20, 2023, meaning it is still winter by their definition.

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