Good Bye, Drought!

Nippy New Year's: Snow, cold chills California

 Doyle Rice, USA TODAY3:38 p.m. EST December 31, 2014

(Photo: Colin Atagi/The Desert sun)

Near-record cold will ring in the New Year in California on Thursday, marking the chilliest Rose Parade in more than 60 years.

Temperatures Thursday morning in Pasadena, Calif., could tie the record low of 32 degrees set in 1952, the National Weather Service said.

After the chilly start, southern Californians will see some warming by late morning, with temperatures climbing through the 40s as sunshine returns, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. Football fans headed to the Rose Bowl will see temperatures in the 50s ahead of the game, before chillier air returns after sunset.

Patty Lang rides a snow disk down a run at the Adventure Mountain snow park near Echo Summit, Calif., on Dec. 30. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

Crops could be damaged in central portions of California — the prime agricultural part of the state — as temperatures are forecast to drop as low as 21 degrees Thursday morning, the weather service said.

"We're getting pretty nervous about it, to be quite honest with you," said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, a nonprofit citrus growers association. Freezing temperatures could affect mandarin orange, navel orange and lemon crops, he said.

The cold snap comes on top of a rare storm that dumped as much as a foot of snow on parts of southern California and the desert Southwest that are unaccustomed to the white stuff. More than 180 motorists were rescued Wednesday from the San Bernardino Mountains — about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles — after being stranded by the storm.

"You'd think you woke up in Tahoe or something," said Aaron Adams of Temecula, Calif., located more than 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles. "Our Old Town looks like a ski town, it looks like something out of Colorado."

Source:http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/12/31/snow-cold-california/21109169/