00:20 Snow in California People living in Southern California saw some snow just before the new year. But they may have got more than they bargained for as some locations, like San Bernardino, snow became dangerous.

Winter Storm Frona's unusual journey finally ended after an an 8-day jog through parts of the Southwest, Midwest and Northeast, finally moving into eastern Canada fully eight days after arriving in the Pacific Northwest on December 27.

Frona has been blamed for at least 16 deaths along its winding path as well as impacting traffic during the holiday season.

(MORE: Crashes, Closures Blamed on Frona)

Montreal was particularly hard hit, with some 140,000 Hydro-Quebec customers lacking power as of Sunday afternoon due to the effects of freezing rain in central Canada.

(MORE: Expert Analysis | Winter Storm Central)

West Recap: Over Two Feet of Snow, Damaging Winds Reported

An arctic air mass supplied the necessary frigid temperatures for snow, and the accompanying very strong area of high pressure from Canada helped force the cold air through multiple mountain ranges all the way down into the Desert Southwest. Meanwhile, energy in the upper atmosphere provided the necessary lift to squeeze out moderate to heavy snowfall over a large area.

(MORE: Arctic Chill Returns to End 2014)

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/breckenridge-29dec14-jessieunruh.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/breckenridge-29dec14-jessieunruh.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/breckenridge-29dec14-jessieunruh.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Snow from Winter Storm Frona blankets Breckenridge, Colorado on Dec. 29, 2014. (Jessie Unruh/GoBreck) (Jessie Unruh/GoBreck)

Winter Storm Frona brought significant snowfall to the mountains of the Northwest, and to a lesser extent portions of the northern Rockies and the Wasatch Range.

Top reported snowfall totals included 28 inches over Santiam Pass, Oregon; 26 inches outside of Jaype in Clearwater County, Idaho; 20 inches in Alta, Utah; 19 inches at Jackson Hole (mid-mountain), Wyoming; 18 inches at Mount Spokane Ski Resort in Washington; and 6.5 inches in the Flatirons just west of Boulder, Colorado.

Valley locations also saw some snow as the cold air dives southward, though not as much as the mountains. The official snow total for Boise, Idaho, was 1.7 inches Saturday evening into Sunday, Dec. 27-28.

Downslope damaging winds also raked parts of northern Utah and California as the cold air poured in behind Winter Storm Frona.

Along the Wasatch Front of Utah, wind gusts as high as 78 mph were recorded in Farmington. Centerville and Snowbasin, Utah also clocked wind gusts as high as 69 mph. At the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, 60 mph wind gusts were reported.

Damaging winds also buffeted parts of the Bay Area Tuesday, Dec. 30. Wind gusts over 60 mph were clocked on the north side of Oakland (1402 feet elevation), atop Mt. Diablo, and at Las Trampas in Contra Costa County. Numerous trees were downed, some on homes.

Winds gusted up to 69 mph in the L.A. County mountains at Warm Springs. An incredible 179-mph gust was clocked atop Mammoth Mountain, at an elevation of just over 11,000 feet.

Over 100 vehicles were stranded on mountainous, snow-covered state highway 138 near Crestline, California and also in two separate locations near Mount Baldy, California Tuesday evening, Dec. 30. This is about 80 miles east-northeast of downtown Los Angeles. San Bernardino County Fire Department personnel brought some of the stranded to shelters while some simply abandoned their vehicles and walked home.

Desert Southwest Recap: Snow on the Desert Floor

A strong jet-stream disturbance in the upper atmosphere plunged into the Desert Southwest and met up with more arctic air arriving from the north and northeast, ingesting some additional moist air, as well.

Snow began to fall throughout the Southwest on Tuesday, generating even a light amount of accumulation in the deserts of Joshua Tree National Park . Up to 3 inches had accumulated in Murrieta, California early Wednesday morning, prompting vehicles to pull off Interstate 15 due to slick roads. As much as 6 to 10 inches of snow has already fallen around Lake Elsinore, California, at an elevation of only 1400 feet, breaking many tree limbs and stranding as many as 50 people on Ortega Highway Route 74, according to California Highway Patrol.

The airport in Flagstaff, Arizona reported 16.9 inches of snow as of 5 am MST Thursday. Snow continued over much of Arizona's higher elevations and the canyonlands of southern Utah, spreading into southwest Colorado and parts of northern New Mexico through early Thursday, New Year's Day.

Some rare light snow also fell on the valley floor in Las Vegas . McCarran International Airport, the official observation site for Las Vegas, reported light snow Wednesday from 9:40 to 9:54 a.m. and again from 10:45 to 11 a.m. Only a trace fell, but that was enough to tie Las Vegas's record snowfall for New Year's Eve.

Accumulating snow in Vegas is not unheard of, but significant snowfall on the valley floor is quite rare. Here are the dates of the last five one-inch snowfalls at McCarran:

Dec. 17, 2008: 3.6 inches

Dec. 30, 2003: 1.3 inches

Dec. 6, 1998: 1.0 inch

Feb. 19, 1990: 1.4 inches

Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 1979: 7.8 inches

(MORE: 10 Shocking Snow Cities )

Needles, California reported 0.3 inch of snow on December 31 which marked the first time that accumulating snow has ever fallen in the month of December there, dating back to January 1888.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona saw a trace of snow on December 31 and January 1 which marks the first time snow was officially reported at this weather observation station since records began in September 1967. Bullhead City, Arizona also recorded the first snow at their observation station when 1 inch fell on December 31 (records date to November 1977).

Plains Recap: Multiple Rounds of Ice and Snow

Earlier in the storm, hazardous driving conditions developed in west Texas on Tuesday, Dec. 30, as an area of light freezing rain and freezing drizzle developed. Accidents were reported in the Midland-Odessa area Tuesday afternoon. Light snow was reported farther north in west Texas.

This light precipitation diminished somewhat Wednesday, but spotty freezing drizzle and temperatures well below freezing kept road conditions treacherous across much of west Texas through New Year's Eve.

Freezing rain and sleet continued through Thursday (New Year's Day) and up to 0.5" of freezing rain and sleet accumulations were reported on Thursday in Garden City and Eldorado, Texas.

Through Friday afternoon, Jan. 2, Lubbock, Midland and San Angelo all reported a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow with accumulations of 0.25 inch.

Ice accumulations of up to 0.5 inch were reported on Saturday morning, Jan. 3, in the Midland, Texas area including Andrews, Texas, where downed power lines caused fires.

Snow also fell, with 9 inches in the Texas Panhandle in Rhea, near the New Mexico border reported early Saturday morning, Jan. 3.

Blizzard conditions were reported on Saturday morning, Jan. 3, in parts of North Dakota, including Grand Forks where visibility was reduced to a quarter of a mile with winds gusting over 40 mph.

The first effects of Winter Storm Frona were in the northern and central Great Plains, which saw some peripheral effects while Frona was still mostly over the West.

In the Great Plains, 3.1 inches of snow fell at the Rapid City, South Dakota, airport on Dec. 28-29; 4.2 inches of snow fell in Scottsbluff, Nebraska Dec. 29-30; Oberlin, Kansas, recorded 7 inches on Dec. 29-30; and 4.7 inches of snow fell those same two days in Goodland, Kansas.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Winter Storm Frona Photos