Photos: Cold weather

Snow covers cypress trees along Avenue S. in Palmdale.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Carlos Garcia, 12, left, and friend Flavio Arizandieta, 12, make snow angels in a field across the street from their homes in Palmdale.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Ronald Mejia, 10, aims a snowball at his brother Jose, 14, while playing by the snow-covered frontyard of their home in Palmdale .  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Carlos Garcia, 12, puts the finishing touches on a snowman he made across the street from his home in Palmdale.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A car in the parking lot of the Econo Lodge in Gorman is covered in snow and ice as Cal Trans works on cleaning up Interstate 5.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Matsumoto zips down a hill with his children Maggie, 2, and Diego, 3, through the forest on a Boogie board after a few inches of new snow covered the Mt. Laguna recreation area east of San Diego.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Amber Glover and Jeremiah Nelson share a warm kiss as her dog gets cold feet during a snowy day trip to Mt. Laguna east of San Diego.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Amid a veil of falling snow, Raechelle Glover adds an acorn button to her little picnic table snowman at a Mt. Laguna picnic area.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

An inch-long melting icicle holds the upside down image of a snowy landscape on the tip of a pine needle in the San Diego County community of Mount Laguna.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Alexandra Prado, 15, waits out the snowstorm and the closure of Interstate 5 at the Parker Road exit ramp. She slept in the car with family.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

A CHP officer Miller removes barricades at the Lake Hughes exit ramp, where hundreds of cars hade been waiting out the snowstorm and the closure of Interstate 5.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Hundreds of cars wait out the snowstorm at the Lake Hughes on-ramp to closed I-5.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Jose Rivas, middle, checks the flow of traffic as he waits his turn to gain access to Interstate 5.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

The northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Pyramid Lake were closed in both directions.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A Cal Trans plow works on cleaning Vista Del Lago Road over Interstate 5 through the Grapevine in Los Angeles County.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Downtown Los Angeles and a sea of clouds, in a view from the Verdugo Hills.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Josh Breneman of Saugus wipes snow off the rear window of his car. Snow began falling in the Santa Clarita Valley about 1 p.m. Sunday.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Aidan Jettner, 15, smiles at the sky as snow begins falling in Saugus.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Motorists are stranded on Highway 138 just outside Gorman after a car skidded into a utility pole, background, causing the road to be shut down.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Dr. Mahnaz Rashti of Beverly Hills tries to keep warm on Highway 138 in Gorman after a car skidded into a utility pole, shutting down the road and stranding Rashti’s family -- headed to Frazier Park for sledding -- and other motorists.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Jedi checks out the situation as cars are stranded on Highway 138 just outside Gorman after an accident caused the road to be shut down. Jedi’s owners were heading home to Frazier Park from camping when they were stranded.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Antonio Chavez handles jumper cables after his car lost power while stranded on Highway 138 in Gorman. Perhaps appropriately, Chavez was trying to get back to Winters, Calif.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Felipe Martinez works to install the plastic sides of a party tent on the grounds of the Capitol as preparations proceed for the inauguration of recently elected California governor Jerry Brown.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Tourists are reflected on wet concrete on the grounds of the state Capitol in Sacramento, where workers were getting ready in the rain for Monday’s inauguration of Jerry Brown as governor of California.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Oswaldo Gonzalez is among the workers putting up 6,400 sqare feet of tenting outside the state Capitol building in Sacramento, where Jerry Brown will be sworn in as governor Monday.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)