Temperatures Expected To Dip Back Into 20s On Tuesday
SACRAMENTO (CBS/AP) — Temperatures in the Sacramento Valley were unseasonably cold on Monday morning. The normal low for Sacramento at this time of the year is 40 degrees, but it actually dipped into the 20s.
Here's where we bottomed out:
- Lincoln 22
- Rocklin 23
- Granite Bay 24
- Citrus Heights 24
- Natomas 25
- Escalon 25
- Modesto 25
- Elk Grove 26
- Stockton 27
- Sac Exec 31
Another hard freeze warning could possibly come on Tuesday morning, with lows dipping into the upper 20s.
Elsewhere in the state, the cold weather was bad news for citrus growers who began to see some damage to the mandarin crop Monday while winds up to 50 mph add to the misery in cities, where residents have been bundled up against record cold for several days.
Temperatures in downtown Los Angeles plummeted to 34 degrees overnight, breaking the previous record of 36 degrees set on Jan. 14, 2007.
Elsewhere Monday, it was 13 degrees in high desert Lancaster; 25 degrees in Fresno; 27 in Temecula; 29 in Claremont; 33 in Redondo Beach; 34 in Palm Springs; 36 in Van Nuys; and 40 in San Francisco.
In Angeles National Forest, where overnight temperatures have been dropping into the 20s, Arcadia hiker Danny Kim, 28, was found Sunday night after surviving 26 hours in the frigid West Fork wilderness. Kim was airlifted to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia.
The body of a homeless man was found just before dawn Monday on a Los Angeles Skid Row sidewalk, but it was unclear if the death was caused by the record cold. City News Service said the name of the man, who appeared to be in his late 50s, wasn't released.
Santa Ana winds have now joined the weeklong cold siege, raking the usual areas below mountain passes, including Fontana, the San Fernando Valley, Riverside, Chino Hills and the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County.
The winds helped to keep most Southern California crops out of danger by keeping the cold from settling.
But temperatures dipping into the 20s threatened mandarin oranges in the San Joaquin Valley.
Paul Story of Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, an association of the state's 3,900 citrus growers, said some mandarin-growing areas in the western part of the valley may have significant damage. Mandarins are more susceptible to cold and are grown in areas that saw some of the lowest temperatures overnight.
Other citrus crops have little or minimal damage, Story said. Sunday temperatures dropped to 25 degrees in some areas and stayed low longer than previous nights.
Growers have been running irrigation water and turning on wind machines to ward off the cold.
"It's the coldest so far," said the mutual's Alyssa Houtdy.
The citrus mutual's president, Joel Nelsen, said the wind helped in Southern California areas, but the cold got to dangerous levels Monday in the San Joaquin Valley. He said there is $1.5 billion worth of citrus on the trees.
"We're expecting some damage to border rows, those rows that are farthest away from protection," Nelsen said. "They had the sprinklers and wind machines going all night. The wind machines keep the warmer air closer to the ground."
Farmers were still assessing their crops.
"We came out better than what we expected," Delano grower Doug Carman told the Fresno Bee. Carman's Paramount Citrus farms about 30,000 acres of clementine mandarins, navel and Valencia oranges, lemons and other citrus varieties
In Beverly Hills, fans brought heavy coats and scarves as they waited along the red carpet hoping to catch glimpses of stars arriving for the Golden Globes ceremony Sunday evening. Some of the actors shivered but weren't complaining.
"I'd rather be nippy than boiling hot," said actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who arrived in a strapless dress. "No, I'm not wearing any leggings or long underwear."
In San Diego, zookeepers offered extra heat and shelter for some animals.
The cold air was flowing east into neighboring Arizona, where metropolitan Phoenix was marking one of its coldest stretches in years. Temperatures over the weekend dipped to 30 degrees at Sky Harbor International Airport and fell well below zero in mountainous Flagstaff.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
