What's this stuff in the air?

As you know, I live in "Sunny" southern California. I put these words in quotations because the sunny part has been missing for the last couple of weeks. We, as a metropolis, are used to a specific type of weather. Now please don't get the misconception that we don't get any. We do, but our "rainstorms" are more like a misty shower that are only exacerbated by our poor irrigation systems and bad drivers. So when the forecast says rain, be prepared to be sitting in traffic due to a hefty amount of fender benders. We typically only have 2 seasons: summer and fall(ish)/spring(ish). Yes surrounding areas get all four seasons, and we if we are lucky we can see the occasional fall tree and snow on the mountains in the distance. Typically our summers last from Mid May to the end of September (and sometimes well into October). They start out at a mild 80-90 degrees and then progress to the triple digits. We don't get as much humidity as other states, but it can happen. When "Winter" arrives, its usually very short lived and mostly just cold (ish) I'd say a mild 50 degrees. Many years we have had 70-80 degree temperatures on Christmas.

This year however has been very different. Our summer was very mild and we have had some weird rainstorms (click me for more) but nothing compared to the first Sunday of 2011. Darin and I were up and ready to go to exchange some items and needed to hit a couple of stores and of course the dreaded mall. We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and Urban Home to check out some new furniture. Then we made our way over to the mall, but stopped by Chipotle first (Darin and I discussed that since the food was freshly made and not processed that this didn't count as "Fast Food"). As we were walking into the restaurant I was praying to myself that there were seats inside because I was already freezing. The reason I live in Cali is because I couldn't hack it in any other state, I hate being cold, although snow is fun, and I hate the humidity and heat. Once we were done with our food we walked back to the car to get the items that needed to be exchanged. All this time I was getting text messages and phone calls from people saying that it was snowing. I kept looking up and the freezing water that was falling from the sky thinking that they were crazy. "It's just raining!" Darin and I went about our errands and when we came back out of the mall, there was snow falling from the sky. Wet and heavy, but non-the-less SNOW! There has been many discrepancies via Facebook as to when the last time the Santa Clarita Valley got snow (February 1989, 1992, and we had a mild storm in 2005 last lasted an hour and melted). Regardless of all that, as Darin and I sat in my car this storm turned from wet snow to hardcore(for Cali) snowing.

 

Darin's Car with Snow

While it snowed for the majority of the afternoon, this portion of the snow only lasted for about an hour or so where I live, and only stuck to the various parked cars around our complex and to overhangs and umbrellas. The entire valley was awestruck and could be seen standing in it and looking into the sky as if they were thinking "What's this stuff in the air?" Later that afternoon I went to see a movie. As I was walking to the theater, movie patrons were leaving and looking around in shock because they missed the entire event. It was a unique and wonderful start to the year and even though it didn't last very long we still got to play in it! :-)

Surrounding hillsides with snow

Surrounding hillsides with snow