LOS ANGELES, January 18, 2007 - A cold storm dusted parts of Southern California with snow, snarling traffic and closing highways, but delighting many residents who raced outside to quickly snap pictures or pack together snowballs before the unusual sighting melted away.

The fast-moving storm that dropped snow in the mountains above Malibu and left streets and lawns in Venice, Westwood and elsewhere covered with ice from hail on Wednesday was the latest blast from a cold snap that has kept California in an icy grip for a week.
The forecast for Thursday called for continued chilly temperatures, with lows in the 30s and 40s.

The wintry mix brought troubles to Interstate 5, where authorities shut down the highway after heavy snow and ice caused big-rigs to jackknife and block traffic over the 4,144-foot Tejon Pass between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Joaquin Valley.

"We had no idea that it was coming, it just hit us all at once," said Officer Dave Pokorny of the CHP's Newhall Station.

The California Highway Patrol is now escorting motorists in both directions on Interstate 5 through the Grapevine area, says CHP Officer Francisco Villalobos.

The National Weather Service said the rare wintry precipitation was from an upper-level low moving through the region. Snow levels plunged well below 1,000 feet.

The dusting was an unusual sight for motorists on Kanan Dume Road in the Santa Monica Mountains where it's more typical to see beach-bound cars loaded with surfboards than a snowplow. It's been at least 18 years since some parts of the area recorded any snow.

Architect Doug Rucker was at his home studio located on a mountain ridge at about 1,700 feet near Kanan Dume Road in Malibu. He said snow was "bouncing like popcorn off my lawns."

"I went out to take pictures of the snow coming down and after it landed ... It is kind of unusual," he said.

Jen Naylor, a Los Angeles native, rushed to her sister's house in Westwood, where the white stuff briefly accumulated in the backyard.

Forecasters say that area was more likely blanketed with irregularly shaped hailstones called graupel that can be confused with snowflakes, but that didn't diminish Naylor's enthusiasm.

"This was the first time I made a snowman in L.A.," Naylor told the Los Angeles Times. "We used dried cranberry for the eyes and a baby carrot for the nose because it was a baby snowman."