Does LA area ever get "cold front" like Florida during winter? (Los Angeles: new house, neighborhood)

[M Ayd]

It seems like it's always steady temperatures in LA area.
Does it ever gets occasional "cold front" with near freezing (30s) such as in Florida, where they have some freezing days, especially at night.

[Charles]

Yes, several times during the winter, typically Jan and Feb, cold systems come in and can dump snow down to 2000 feet. Temperatures in the interior valleys (San Fernando Valley for example) often get below freezing in winter. As a kid growing up in the west SFV in the 1960s, I remember smudge pots used to prevent frost on fruit trees.

[f_m]

Originally Posted by M Ayd

It seems like it's always steady temperatures in LA area.
Does it ever gets occasional "cold front" with near freezing (30s) such as in Florida, where they have some freezing days, especially at night.

It's almost never near freezing in southern CA, especially near the water. In other words, worrying about frozen pipes is not a significant issue.

[SoCalAngel2009]

I live in an elevation that's about 1,000 ft. above sea level and it gets really chilly here in the winter in the mornings... 30s and 40s. Snow is very rare, though.

[Charles]

This photo was taken looking north in winter 1962 from our new house in Canoga Park. In the background is snow capped Oat Mountain, 3,747 feet.

[andrewesque]

In general, the entire Los Angeles area with the exception of the beach communities (Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, etc) sees temperatures in the 40s in the winter every night, but this is usually only in the predawn hours and early morning. (This creates some interesting contrasts where the daytime temperature, on a very mild winter day, can be say 46 at 5 am and 75 by 2 pm, although daytime temps in the 60s are a bit more likely). Mountain and high-up communities of course see lower temperatures, as previous posters have mentioned, but cooler temps with higher elevation is normal anywhere.

Temps in the 30s are rare though. Although we do have cold snaps very occasionally where nighttime temps will plunge into the high 30s (and I don't think this even happens every winter), it's never ever in the 30s or even really the 40s in the daytime really, at least as far as I know. Cold snaps here generally consist of nighttime temperatures hitting the low 40s but rebounding nicely in the daytime.

All of this of course is subject to the general rule that the beach is mildest (hence, warmest) followed roughly by the basin, then the valleys. Very generally speaking, anyway.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I had some frost on my windows not too long ago, at 5am. haven't seen it that cold in years. I live on the coast.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by f_m

It's almost never near freezing in southern CA, especially near the water. In other words, worrying about frozen pipes is not a significant issue.

I agree, even if it does freeze it is for a short period of time, maybe a few hours and things like pipes never are affected. When we moved from Los Angeles to Wash DC I had never heard of frozen pipes, we didn't know what they were talking about. Leaving the water dripping all night was crazy to us.
Now I see some of you are talking about the mornings being in the 40s and once in awhile the 30s. We lived in SG valley, did see mornings like that, but here we are seeing days not getting about 20 to 30. Now, that is cold...

Nita

[BRinSM]

i grew up about 20-30 miles from the coast and i remember cold mornings in the winter where you would see frost on the tile roofs and on the grass lawns in my neighborhood. this would happen a handful of times throughout the winter. there would also be the occasional hail, but we certainly never got any snow.

[Charles]

Here's photo of a bunch of snow at Canoga Park High School 1949

http://www.canogaparkhs.org/pics/his...tory_rev6a.jpg