Snow blasts California and freezes Pacific Northwest

By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Severe weather sweeping parts of the U.S. has brought frigid temperatures to the Pacific Northwest, heavy snow to mountains in Northern California and Nevada, and unseasonable warmth to Texas and the Southeast. Officials on Monday say a Donner Pass record in the Sierra Nevada has been broken for the snowiest December record, previously set in 1970. The Northstar California Resort in Truckee has closed its mountain operations amid blizzard conditions. In the Pacific Northwest, emergency warming shelters were opened throughout western Washington and Oregon. Yet temperatures were unseasonably warm in parts of the Southern Plains, including in Arkansas, where several cities broke records on Christmas Day for daily high temperatures.