Snow in Lake Elsinore December 2014
Every once in a while (every few years) we see snow on the hills behind our house. However the snow there only lasts a few hours or rarely a whole day. But the snow never reaches the ground level where we are. Last December was different. A sudden snow covered the ground for a few days. It was the first time I actually saw snow at ground level in Southern California that lasted more than a couple of hours or so. Even then, the snow would be so thin and wispy and disappear in an hour or so.
Last Christmas holidays, 2014, it snowed and the snow stayed on the ground several days. That was the first and only snow I’ve seen since 1960 where the snow stayed on the ground more than a few hours. Of course in the mountains there is always snow in the winter and it often lasts many days, or longer. The mountains are about an hour and fifteen minutes away in two different directions.
These pictures were taken after the snow had been on the ground a couple of days or longer. They were taken on a cheap cellphone so the quality is not good, plus I could not find the originals so I had to copy and paste from Facebook and create the images from those.
Our home in Lake Elsinore, California about 2 or 3 days after the snowfall.
Those hills behind my house start about a block (650 ft.) away and go from our elevation of about 1450 ft to about 3100 – 3300 ft in Cleveland National Forest. They separate Riverside County from Orange County.
Highway 74 which goes through those hills goes to San Juan Capistrano and shortly past there to the Pacific Ocean. Its about 35 miles from my house thru those hills to San Juan Capistrano, a few miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Some of the snow is still on the ground in the driveway.
View from part of our backyard
The cars were originally covered with several inches of snow
View from the dining room window after about 3 or 4 days.
