A winter storm drenched and frosted the San Diego area Tuesday, coating the East County highlands with snow down to the 2,000-foot level and bringing upwards of an inch of rain to some lower-elevation locales.
People snuck away from their daily routine to get a taste of winter. Off Sunrise Highway, families threw snowballs, went sledding on plastic disks and built snowmen in about 5 inches of snow.
As of midafternoon, the banks of dark clouds had dropped 7 inches of snow on Palomar Mountain, 6 inches in Julian, 5 inches on Mount Laguna, 3 inches in Descanso, an inch in Ranchita and trace amounts in Alpine, according to the National Weather Service.
Over the same period, the cloudbursts left 1.07 inches of rain in Mesa Grande, 0.96 in Pine Hills, 0.93 in Flinn Springs, 0.91 along Los Coches Creek, 0.9 in San Diego Country Estates, 0.89 in Harbison Canyon, 0.87 on Otay Mountain, 0.85 in Barona, 0.84 in Granite Hills, 0.74 in Ramona, 0.73 in Valley Center, 0.71 in Escondido, 0.63 in Santee, 0.6 in La Mesa, 0.47 in Poway and 0.43 in Fallbrook.
Closer to the coast, the storm dropped 0.75 of an inch of moisture at Brown Field airport, 0.59 in San Ysidro, 0.57 in Carlsbad, 0.48 in Chula Vista, 0.45 in Del Mar, 0.44 in City Heights, 0.43 in Encinitas, 0.42 in Mission Valley, 0.39 in Linda Vista, 0.36 in Oceanside, 0.32 at Lindbergh Field, 0.31 in Vista, 0.3 at SeaWorld, 0.29 in La Jolla, 0.18 in Mission Beach and 0.15 in Point Loma.
The chilly conditions resulted in some notably low maximum temperatures locally, including 56 degrees in El Cajon, tying the record for the date’s low maximum set last year; 49 in Alpine, tying the record set in 1962; and 55 in Vista breaking the record of 57 set in 2001.
Light snowfall was expected to continue Tuesday evening as the storm moves out of the area, making way for fair but cool conditions Wednesday and Thursday, according to meteorologists.
Another period of inclement weather is due to pass through Southern California on Friday and Saturday, delivering more rainfall and some new coatings of snow in the higher mountain elevations, forecasters said.
— City News Service
