The San Diego mountains received a surprise snow storm Friday morning.
Flakes began falling at about 8 a.m. in Julian and Descanso. By noon, the areas received about a foot of snow, and road crews were experiencing some difficulty in keeping the roads clear.
Drivers in the east county are being told to put chains on their cars.
The storm is unlikely to move past the mountains, however some areas such as El Cajon, may experience some showers.
The low pressure system that moved in on Thursday has moved south over Baja and is slowly moving east toward the mainland of Mexico.
However, the storm is swirling around in its counter-clockwise motion, bringing wind and colder temperatures in from the northeast.
This is producing clouds west of the mountains and wind gusts up to around 20-25 mph. If it wasn't for the dry air at the surface we could be expecting some scattered showers over the valleys and coastline. This could still happen but probably not until tomorrow morning.
Temperatures are also turning out to be cooler than the mid and upper 60s that were expected. Temperatures are now dropping as the clouds winds increase.
The Mt. Laguna Lodge is reporting more than 14" already on the ground as of noon and more on the way.
Local
Winds are also gusting to 35 mph through the afternoon, producing potential blizzard-like conditions. The winds are expected to last into tomorrow afternoon. We could also see additional snow accumulation through the night.
Desert areas are experiencing gusty winds and light rain out of the east and northeast. Less than a quarter-inch of rain is expected.
