SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An unusually cold weather system from the Gulf of Alaska interrupted summer along the West Coast Saturday, bringing snow to mountains in California and the Pacific Northwest and closing part of a highway that runs through a national park.
Sections of Highway 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park in California were closed after about 3 inches of snow fell overnight, according to the National Weather Service.
Photos released by the agency and local authorities showed a white blanket at high elevations on Mount Rainier in Washington and a dusting of snow at Minaret Vista, a viewpoint southeast of Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada.
Madera County Deputy Sheriff Larry Rich said it was “definitely unexpected” to see snow in Minaret Vista in August.
“It’s not every day that you get to spend your birthday surrounded by a winter wonderland in the middle of summer,” he said in a statement. “It was a day I won’t soon forget and reminded me why I love serving in this region. It’s one of those moments that makes my job here so special.”
In northern Nevada, rain fell ahead of the annual Burning Man festival, prompting organizers to close the entrance gate for most of Saturday before reopening it.
Torrential rains disrupted last year’s festival, turning the celebration and its temporary city into a muddy quagmire.
It also snowed overnight at Mammoth Mountain, a ski destination in California, and the National Weather Service warned hikers and campers to prepare for slippery roads.
Record rainfall hit Redding, Red Bluff and Stockton in Northern California on Saturday, the weather service said, and rain showers south of Lake Oroville were expected to continue into the evening.
A dusting of snow fell overnight on the Sierra Nevada crest near Tioga Pass, the weather service said. There has been no August snowfall there since 2003, forecasters said.
Tioga Pass is over 10,000 feet above sea level and is the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. But it is usually closed for much of the year by winter snow, which can take a month or two to clear.
Although the start of the ski season is not expected for several months, the arrival of winter has been welcomed favorably by the resorts.
“It’s a cool and windy August day here in Palisades Tahoe as a storm that could bring our first snowfall of the season moves in this afternoon!” the resort said in a social media post Friday.
According to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, “unusually cool conditions” will spread across much of the western United States by Sunday morning.
Despite the expected rainfall, forecasters also warned of a fire risk due to gusty winds associated with the passage of the cold front.
Meanwhile, a flash flood warning was issued for the area burned by California’s largest wildfire so far this year, from Friday morning through Saturday morning.
The Park Fire has burned more than 671 square miles since breaking out in late July near the Central Valley town of Chico and has moved up the western slopes of the Sierra.
The fire has become the fourth largest on record in California, but it has been largely contained recently. Patches of vegetation continue to burn within its current perimeter, but evacuation orders have been lifted.
The state’s wildfire season got off to a roaring start amid the extreme heat of July. The fires fed on dried-out vegetation that had grown in successive wet years. Fire activity has recently fallen into a relative lull.
The forecast predicts a rapid return of summer heat with the departure of the cold front.
