Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Bitter cold grips Calif., hiker rescued in forest

Heidi Blood carries her dog to the side of the road for a drink of water while waiting in line with her car along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. The California Highway Patrol has partially reopened a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles that was closed for many hours due to snow. The CHP began escorting southbound motorists through the high mountain pass Friday morning. Northbound lanes are still closed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Heidi Blood carries her dog to the side of the road for a drink of water while waiting in line with her car along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. The California Highway Patrol has partially reopened a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles that was closed for many hours due to snow. The CHP began escorting southbound motorists through the high mountain pass Friday morning. Northbound lanes are still closed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Trucks backed up along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. The California Highway Patrol has partially reopened a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles that was closed for many hours due to snow. The CHP began escorting southbound motorists through the high mountain pass Friday morning. Northbound lanes are still closed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Closed I-5 northbound lanes are shown empty of traffic due to snow and ice Friday Jan. 11, 2013 near Gorman, Calif. California authorities on Friday reopened this 40-mile stretch of a major highway north of Los Angeles, some 17 hours after snow shut the route and forced hundreds of truckers to spend the cold night in their rigs.(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Fiona Chiang shields her face from blowing sand as she walks north on Carlsbad Boulevard in Carlsbad, Calif. Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Southern California is bracing for a cold snap that is expected to drop temperatures to a six-year low. (AP Photo/U-T San Diego, Bill Wechter) SAN DIEGO COUNTY OUT; NO SALES; COMMERCIAL INTERNET OUT; FOREIGN OUT

Bundled up against the elements, a boy catches a football as frigid, gusting winds blow sand in drifts across a boardwalk on a nearly-deserted beach near the pier at Santa Monica, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Strawberry growers are covering their crops while San Diego zookeepers are turning on heaters for the chimpanzees as Southern California braces for a cold snap expected to drop temperatures to a six-year low. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

(AP) ? Winds up to 50 mph added to California's big chill misery on Monday as farmers struggle to save their citrus crops from sub-freezing temperatures and residents bundle up in record cold.

Downtown Los Angeles dipped to 35 degrees just before 4 a.m. Monday, breaking the previous record of 36 degrees set on Jan. 14, 2007.

Elsewhere Monday, it was 13 degrees in high desert Lancaster at 6 a.m., 25 degrees in Fresno, 27 in Temecula, 33 in Redondo Beach and Sacramento, 36 in Van Nuys and Palm Springs 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.

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.

But temperatures dipping into the 20s threatened mandarin oranges in the San Joaquin Valley. Mandarins can only withstand 32 degree temperatures.

Growers have been running irrigation water and turned on wind machines to ward off the cold.

"It's the coldest so far. We're expecting a little damage," said Alyssa Houtdy of Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, an association of the state's 3,900 citrus growers.

Farmers were still being contacted for assessments.

"We came out better than what we expected," Delano grower Doug Carman told the Fresno Bee (http://bit.ly/TVduLi ). 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 year. Temperatures over the weekend dipped to 30 degrees at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. They fell well below zero in mountainous Flagstaff.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-14-California%20Cold%20Snap/id-f5113e1857d94170af3ed705236b142e

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