Record cold in California - 30 at Santa Barbara Airport!!!

[Anonymous]

http://www.ktvu.com/news/3958723/detail.html


SAN FRANCISCO -- The bitter cold air that has stalled over California triggered another wave of record lows early Wednesday with San Francisco matching a 32-year-old mark and Oakland, Los Angeles and Burbank among others setting new records, according to the National Weather Service.


The cold wave dropped temperatures to record-tying lows of 42 degrees in San Francisco and 32 in Sacramento and to record levels of 39 in Oakland (former record 40 in 1976), of 41 in Los Angeles and 33 in Burbank.

It marked a third day of such lows. On Tuesday, the cold wave dropped temperatures to 41 degrees in San Francisco overnight, to 38 in Oakland, to 27 in Stockton, 30 at the Santa Barbara airport and 37 degrees in Long Beach. The old records were 42 in San Francisco set in 1897, 40 in Oakland set in 1996 and 27 in Stockton first set in 1954.

Elsewhere, temperatures plunged to the 30s across much of California and to near-zero in some areas, forcing growers to closely monitor crops and social workers to scramble to find shelter for the homeless.

The cold wave has caused at least one death. Police on Monday found a 58-year-old man dead on a bench in Santa Cruz.

The state has been in a deep freeze since early Monday when Los Angeles shivered at 39 degrees but it was colder elsewhere, including Los Angeles County's high desert city of Lancaster, which froze at 15. At high elevations, it was 2 at Alturas in the northeast corner of the state and 3 degrees at South Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada.

Southern California Edison, serving customers in the southern and central regions of the state, had adequate power capacity, said spokesman Paul Klein.

However, the cold was more problematic for avocado growers, who used wind machines and irrigation overnight to protect their crops.

"Growers were up all night watching the temperatures. Industrywide, it was a pretty sleepless night for a lot of growers," said Guy Witney, director of industry affairs for the California Avocado Commission.

Still, a small number of the 6.2 million avocado trees from San Luis Obispo to San Diego counties had frost on the leaves but not enough to damage the crops, Witney said.

Other crops susceptible to frost damage are citrus trees, but growers also used giant fans and irrigation to help them endure temperatures below about 27 degrees, said Claire Smith, spokeswoman for Sunkist Growers.

The citrus cooperative, which has 6,000 growers in California and Arizona, reported no damage, she said.

Though no frost damage to farm crops were immediately reported Tuesday, it may take a couple days until it's discovered, said Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

"We're hopeful so far that we've avoided any significant damage," he said.

Social workers in some parts of California were concerned about a shortage of shelter beds for the homeless.

In the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles, the Lancaster Community Shelter provided beds for nearly 60 people off the streets, said shelter case manager Bobby Hampton.

"We took in everyone who lined up because of the cold," Hampton said, noting the 60 people was the most the shelter has accepted in one night so far this year. "We set the cots side by side and toe to toe."

Searchers continued to look for missing hiker Robert Komenda, 64, of Los Angeles, who was last seen Thursday in the Mount Pinos area of Los Padres National Forest in Kern County.

Additional crews will join the search on Friday, said sheriff's Sgt. Chevy Garza.

Copyright 2004 by KTVU.com

[yoda]

Just a bit cold out there...

[Aslkahuna]

Just think, SFO's record low was the same as the HIGH Temperature I recorded here in the SE corner of AZ on Monday. Of course, we are a bit more used to cold weather since contrary to Public Opinion this part of AZ does have a Winter.

Steve

[weatherlover427]

It was 33 here the past two nights. Already down to 37 as of last check. Been a bit chilly lately I must say.