- Motorists were caught in the middle of an onslaught of winter weather on the road crossing from California to Nevada on Thursday
- Despite Southern California's snowy afternoon, California has seen much less snow than usual this season
Travelers on the 15 Freeway between Nevada and Southern California were affected by heavy snow on Thursday.
Videos taken by motorists on the highway showed heavy snow pelting their windshields on a road that had not yet been treated for the slushy weather.
One of these drivers recorded video of the storm
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, several roads were closed elsewhere, causing lost work for companies that rely on transporting agricultural goods from California across the border into Arizona.
The video was taken several miles south of an agricultural checkpoint in San Bernardino County, California. The driver had just crossed the state line into Mountain Pass, Nevada, which sits at an elevation of 4,730 feet.
California begins 2024 with below-average snowpack in the mountains, a year after it got off to one of its best starts in decades with storms that finally lifted 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 deposited between 5 and 8 inches of snow.
In Nevada, a storm deposited five inches of snow in Lee Canyon before continuing its path – the area was under a winter weather advisory until early Thursday morning.
NWS says a second winter storm is expected to hit SoCal this weekend, likely bringing more snow and moderate to strong winds.
Despite the snow near Los Angeles, California has seen less snow than usual this winter, impacting the Sierra Nevada in northern California.
The limited winter weather could spell trouble for a state that relies on melted snowpack 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.
But despite the potentially worrisome lack of snow in some parts of California, state officials have also urged Californians to prepare for possible “climate whiplash,” a phenomenon that includes potentially dangerous flooding after months of drought.
5 inches of snow and counting @LeeCanyonLV Today! As the center of this storm moves over southern Nevada this afternoon, there will be off-and-on snow in the mountains and rain in the valleys the rest of the day. A winter weather advisory is in effect for the Spring Mountains until 4 a.m…. pic.twitter.com/0eFbEqWmcG
— Sam Argier (@SamArgier) January 3, 2024
A winter weather system moved from California to Nevada earlier this week, leaving weather warnings for several counties
A snow plow clears a road in Mammoth Lakes on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 – Last winter saw record-breaking amounts of snow in California
Last winter, California received record amounts of snow, enough to lift large parts of the state out of its long drought.
The state's snowpack increased 237 percent above the annual average. This season things seem to be different.
Thursday's winter storm and the one expected over the weekend come just days after an eastern Pacific storm battered the California coast with enormous waves and swells up to 20 feet high.
Eight onlookers in Ventura County were injured as they watched walls of water crash into the shoreline.
The highway between Nevada and Southern California is hit by a huge SNOW STORM