Snow on the Central Coast mountain tops

We’re seeing more snow on the Central Coast.

If you looked around this morning, you may have seen it in the higher
elevations. From Mount Toro, to Freemont Peak… many woke up to mountain tops with a light glaze of snow this morning.

Brian Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service says, “last night we had a weak disturbance pass across our area, it was more like across the central valley region. But it just clipped our area enough to bring us some, what we call convection… So those deep thunderstorm type clouds. It brought in a lot of cool air and with that mixed down some hail to some lowland areas and some snow to the mountains which was really cool.”

As far snow totals, we received anywhere from a dusting of snow to a few inches max in our area… making it all the way down to 1,000 ft.

Matt Mehle, also with NWS says, “From our office here in Monterey, we’re right next to the airport. And from our roof this
morning we could see several peaks that were snow-covered. This is the Fremont peak, that’s the closest one… and this is Mt. Umunhum which is one of the higher peaks in the Santa Cruz Mts.”

This is something the national weather service says doesn’t happen all that often.

Garcia, “I wouldn’t say it’s unusual to see around here, but it doesn’t happen all the time either. So whenever it does snow of course, it makes the news.”

But what is unusual, is if the snow level were to have dropped all the way down to sea level. Something that hasn’t happened in 7 years.
“We actually had one system earlier this year where the snow level was a little bit lower. Down to about 700ft. But the last time we actually had measurable snow level at the surface was 2011” says, Mehle.

Sometimes, it might just be the meteorologists who get the most excited to see snowfall. For Brian and Matt.. It takes them back to their childhood.

Mehle – “considering I grew up the east coast… Yes. I’m happy to see some snow.”

Garcia – “you know whenever I get to be in the snow and play in the snow… It makes me feel like a kid all over again.”

And for our very own Chief Meteorologist, it’s about sparking curiosity.

Dann Cianca, KION’s Chief Meteorologist says, “I’m really excited. It’s something that doesn’t happen to frequently. It gets people excited about the weather. You know people who might not think about weather that much they walk outside, they see that the hills are covered in snow and suddenly they’re looking about it and they are curious about it.”