- Drivers were caught in the middle of a winter storm crossing from California to Nevada on Thursday
- Despite the snowy afternoon in SoCal, California has had much less snow than normal this season
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Travelers on Highway 15 between Nevada and Southern California were hit by heavy snow on Thursday.
Videos taken by motorists on the highway showed the intense snowfall hitting their windshields on a road that had not yet been treated for the muddy weather.
One of those drivers, who posted video of the storm to
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, several roads have been closed elsewhere, halting businesses that rely on transporting agricultural goods from California across the border into Arizona.
The video was shot several miles south of an agricultural checkpoint in San Bernardino County, California. The driver had just crossed the state line into Mountain Pass, Nevada, at an elevation of 4,700 feet.
California starts 2024 with a below-normal mountain snowpack, a year after it had one of its best starts in decades, with storms finally pulling the state out of drought
Ahead of Thursday's storm, a winter weather advisory was issued for the Los Angeles County mountains bordering San Bernardino.
The National Weather Service reported that the winter storm system had deposited between five and eight inches of snow.
In Nevada, a storm deposited two inches of snow in Lee Canyon before continuing on its path – the area was under a winter weather advisory until early Thursday morning.
NWS says a second winter storm is expected to arrive in SoCal this weekend, likely bringing more snow and moderate to strong winds.
Despite the snow near Los Angeles, California has received less snow than normal this winter, impacting the Sierra Nevada in Northern California.
The limited winter weather could spell trouble for a state that relies on snowmelt for a significant portion of its water supply.
The California Department of Water Resources reported Tuesday that the entire Golden State has an average snowpack of only about 25 percent of the annual average.
However, despite the potentially alarming lack of snow in some parts of California, state officials have also told Californians to brace for a possible “climate whiplash,” a phenomenon that brings potentially dangerous flooding after months of drought.
A winter weather system moved from California to Nevada earlier this week, leaving several counties under weather warnings
A snow plow clears a road in Mammoth Lakes on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 – California experienced record high snow amounts last winter
Last winter, California experienced record-high amounts of snow, enough to lift large parts of the state out of a long drought.
The state's snowpack catapulted to 237 percent higher than the annual average. This season it seems to be different.
Thursday's winter storm and the storm expected this weekend arrive just days after an eastern Pacific storm lashed the California coastline with huge waves and ocean swells as high as 20 feet.
Eight spectators in Ventura County were injured as they watched the walls of water crash into the shore.