Parts of Southern California see rare snowfall

STORY: A foot of fresh snow is a rare sight for the Californian town of Lake Hughes, whose scenery usually consists of dry hilltops, heat and blue skies.

But it was a delight for many such as 11-year-old Jeremiah Dominguez.

“I live where there's, like, no snow ever. Like, the only snow I've got was hail in, like, first grade. And it's pretty exciting. We've been building snowmen and then breaking them. And we were shoveling snow all day. It's pretty fun."

While it's exciting for many residents, snow-covered roads have inconvenienced many commuters on Friday.

"I couldn't go to work. We live on top of a hill, so all of our whole entire road was covered in snow."

A slow-moving winter storm over California on Friday triggered the first blizzard warning in parts of the Los Angeles area in 30 years.

The famed Hollywood sign atop Mount Lee was was barely visible behind a cloud of snowflakes.

The snow was heaviest in the Cascades, Sierra Nevada and coastal mountains.

Social media videos showed white hilltops in Berkeley Hills.

State highway authorities were forced to shut down the Interstate 5, a major north–south route.

Another resident, DeAnn Blunk, told Reuters she expects more extreme weather ahead.

"A lot of people probably anticipated needing to stock up in having power outages and closures on the roads, which we've had before, especially with the mudslides and the flooding. I think that is one of the biggest concerns is we are looking at a lot of rainfall, snow, the snow will melt and the wind. And we worry about the mudslides and the flooding since we've had it twice already."

Even before the latest storm, much of California has experienced an unusually rainy, chilly winter.

There was widespread flooding, felled trees and mudslides in a state long plagued by drought and wildfires.

Experts say powerful winter storms, interspersed with extreme heat and dry spells, are symptoms of climate change, and they will grow more frequent and intense.