For the first time in years, the San Diego County mountains are receiving a measurable amount of snow in May.

The National Weather Service said that about one inch of snow fell on Mt. Laguna before dawn on Monday.

“The air is warming up; the flurries are now turning to rain,” said Alex Tardy, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Rancho Bernardo.

Tardy said the local mountains haven’t had measurable snow in May since 2015, when two inches fell on Palomar Mountain during the month. Palomar got one inch of snow in May 1998, the weather service said. Mt. Laguna got a half-inch of snow in May 1988.


The overnight snow was produced by a cold front from the North Pacific.

“This system is about equal in coldness to what we see during the winter,” Tardy said. “You don’t expect that this time of year.”