The U.S. is under the effects of a brutal winter. Southern California and Nevada had a historic and unusual snow storm as a deep low pressure system swept through on Wednesday.

(Winter weather warnings are indicated by the blue, pink, and purple.)

Current preliminary snow fall amounts (NWS report):

LAKE LOS ANGELES (ABOUT 2500 FT).. 8 INCHES
MALIBU HILLS (JUST BELOW 2000 FT). .5 INCHES
FRAZIER PARK (5000 FT)............ 12 INCHES
PEARBLOSSOM (ABOUT 3100 FT)....... 9 INCHES
WRIGHTWOOD (ABOUT 6100 FT)........ 20 INCHES
PALMDALE (ABOUT 2200 FT)......... 6 INCHES

HISTORIC AND RECORD SNOW FOR SIN CITY...

As of 9:50pm PST, 3.6 inches of snow fell at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. This broke the record for the most snow ever in the moth of December since the start of official records in 1937. This is now the 8th greatest snowstorm ever for Las Vegas for any month.

Measurable snow has only fallen in December 3 other times in history.

The storm will continue to dump several inches of snow over the deserts and mountains of Colorado. It will then become very progressive and fly across Kansas and on to the Ohio and Great Lakes region as it dumps more snow onto the growing snow pack.

The next system, currently over British Columbia, will slide slowly to the east, setting the scene for more major amounts of lake effect snow.

If this trend continues, then the snow pack in the northern plains will be large enough that there could be some serious low pressure systems in January and February.