TRUCKEE, Calif. (KOLO) – Summer on the West Coast was interrupted by an unusually cold low pressure system that moved from the Gulf of Alaska across the Pacific Northwest to Northern California.
Snowfall was reported early Saturday on Washington state’s towering Mount Rainier and across the Sierra. The California Highway Patrol’s Truckee office posted video of snow flurries.
The U.S. National Weather Service reported that snow had fallen in the Bridgeport area.
Palisades Tahoe reported its first August snowfall since 2004.
“With a full month of summer still ahead of us, it is unusual to see snow at this time as August is typically one of our warmest months,” Palisades Tahoe said in a statement.
Photos released by the National Weather Service and local authorities showed Rainier’s white-capped peak and a thin layer of snow at Minaret Vista, a viewpoint southeast of Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada.
Madera County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Rich said it was “definitely unexpected” to see snow in Minaret Vista in August.
“It’s not every day you get to spend your birthday in the middle of summer in the middle of a winter wonderland,” he said in a statement. “It was a day I won’t soon forget and a unique reminder of why I love working in this area so much. It’s just one of those moments that makes working up here so special.”
It also snowed overnight at Mammoth Mountain, a ski resort in California. The National Weather Service warned hikers and campers to prepare for icy roads.
Tioga Pass is over 10,000 feet high and serves as the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. However, it is closed most of the year due to winter snows, which take one to two months to melt. Snowfall is expected.
“While the snow will not linger very long, roads near Tioga Pass may be slick and all campers and hikers should prepare for winter conditions,” the weather service wrote.
Even though it will still be a few months until the start of the ski season, the ski resorts are already enjoying the first hint of winter.
“It’s a cool and blustery August day here in Palisades Tahoe, as a storm is moving in this afternoon that could bring us our first snowfall of the season!” the resort said in a social media post on Friday.
According to the National Weather Service’s Weather Forecast Center in College Park, Maryland, “anomalous cool conditions” will spread across much of the Western United States by Sunday morning.
Despite the expected rainfall, meteorologists also warned of the risk of fire due to gusty winds associated with the passage of the cold front.
At the same time, a flash flood warning was issued for the burn scar of the largest forest fire in California this year for the period from Friday morning to Saturday morning.
The Park Fire raged near the city of Chico in the Central Valley in late July and covered an area of more than 1,748 square kilometers after climbing up the western slope of the Sierra.
The fire was the fourth largest ever recorded in California, but has recently been largely contained. Some pockets of vegetation are still burning within the existing perimeter, but evacuation orders have been lifted.
California’s wildfire season began with extreme heat in July. The fires fed on dried vegetation that had grown during two consecutive wet years. Recently, fire activity has become relatively quiet.
Forecasts assume that as the cold front moves away, the summer heat will quickly return.
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