Dennis RomeroUpdated after the jump: There seems to be some debate about whether the white stuff is snow or “graupel.”
Snow in Los Angeles? Looks like it. The National Weather Service told us there was an outside chance as the snow level for metro L.A. fell to 1,500 Saturday. It happened:
Snow covers a Burbank street.; Credit: Liana Aghajanian
Burbank was covered in white stuff after a flurry late Saturday afternoon. It was just a dusting, but it stuck.
Residents and workers in the area told KTLA News that it was genuine soft stuff — not hail. Footage from the station seemed to prove that assertion.
It snowed briefly in nearby in Universal City, too, city Councilman Tom LaBonge told KNX 1070 Newsradio. He said the last time it snowed in the area was 1949.
It never snows in L.A?; Credit: mwshaw
Will it make Sunday's Academy Awards' red carpet in Hollywood white? Doubt it.
The winter storm warning for the area expires at 9 p.m.
Snow or graupel in Burbank?; Credit: E-Geniuses
Update: Saturday night news programs split on whether the news was snow or “graupel,” which the American Meteorology Society defines as “… heavily rimed snow particles, often called snow pellets.”
We'll let Wikipedia take it from here:
Contact between a snow crystal and the supercooled droplets results in freezing of the liquid droplets onto the surface of the crystal. This process of crystal growth is known as accretion. Crystals that exhibit frozen droplets on their surfaces are referred to as rimed. When this process continues so that the shape of the original snow crystal is no longer identifiable, the resulting crystal is referred to as graupel.
A graupel wonderland in Burbank?; Credit: E-Geniuses
CBS2 stated that the National Weather Service says it was in fact “graupel,” not snow. Other stations, including ABC7, stuck with snow. (NBC4's website also goes with graupel).
First posted at 6:20 p.m. Saturday.
-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.
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