Buildup
An unusually mild winter across many parts of the Southwest and Pacific Northwest paved the way for an extreme blast of Arctic air that dipped extremely far south causing Arctic snow conditions in the Pacific Northwest and unusually frigid temperatures in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. December brought extremely dry conditions for Southern California as well as unusually warm weather, with relatively little cloud cover in the area. Los Angeles averaged well over 3 degrees above average for the month of December. In the Pacific Northwest, the area was continually blasted with unusually large rain storms causing flooding in much of Washington and Oregon. Temperatures began to drop below average in the San Joaquin Valley beginning January 11 and January 12 in Southern California. The first freeze occurred in the San Joaquin Valley around midnight on January 13. During this time, the middle of the nation was being affected by a severe ice storm system caused by the tail end of the same arctic air afflicting the west.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Western United States Freeze
Famous quotes containing the word buildup:
“I think those Southern writers [William Faulkner, Carson McCullers] have analyzed very carefully the buildup in the South of a special consciousness brought about by the self- condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States and the hope, sometimes expressed timidly, for redemption.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)