Southern California experiences record-breaking cold snap

It may be nothing for Canadians when the mercury hits the freezing mark, but it has residents of southern California reaching for their winter jackets. They woke up to more record-breaking frigid temperatures this morning, as temperatures in some spots went below zero.

This is due to a cold, stable airmass over western Canada linking up with high pressure over the U.S. southwest, causing the jet stream to plunge far to the south and pull down chilly arctic air along with it.

In downtown Los Angeles, the temperature bottomed out this morning at 34 degrees Fahrenheit (~1°C). It hasn't been that cold there since January 29th, 1979, when it got down to 29°F (-1.6°C), and the lowest temperature reached there was 28°F (-2.2°C) back on January 4th, 1949.

Outside the city, temperatures dipped even lower, reaching 31°F (-0.6°C) in Redondo Beach, 29°F (-1.6°C) in Claremont, and even down to 14°F (-10°C) in Lancaster, in northern Los Angeles County.

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Temperatures are expected to rise over the next few days, drawing the area out of this cold snap and into more seasonal temperatures, however this shift in the jet stream is a strong indicator of the phase of the Arctic Oscillation — the large-scale weather pattern that has a large influence over winter weather in North America — which will likely mean more frigid temperatures for the southern United States before the season ends.