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Heat Waves, Wildfires and Now Snow? California Endures Summer of Extremes

This photo provided by the National Weather Service shows a snow-covered section of Mt. Rainier, Wash., at 10,000 feet on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (National Weather Service via AP)
This photo provided by the National Weather Service shows a snow-covered section of Mt. Rainier, Wash., at 10,000 feet on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (National Weather Service via AP)
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Heat Waves, Wildfires and Now Snow? California Endures Summer of Extremes

This photo provided by the National Weather Service shows a snow-covered section of Mt. Rainier, Wash., at 10,000 feet on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (National Weather Service via AP)
This photo provided by the National Weather Service shows a snow-covered section of Mt. Rainier, Wash., at 10,000 feet on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (National Weather Service via AP)

An unusually cold weather system from the Gulf of Alaska interrupted summer along the West Coast on Saturday, bringing snow to mountains in California and the Pacific Northwest and prompting the closure of part of a highway that runs through a national park.
Parts of Highway 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park in California were shut down after an estimated 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of snow fell overnight, according to the National Weather Service.
Photos posted by the agency and local authorities showed a high-elevation blanket of white on Mount Rainier in Washington along with a dusting of snow at Minaret Vista, a lookout point southeast of Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada.
Madera County Deputy Sheriff Larry Rich said it was “definitely unexpected” to see snow at Minaret Vista in August.
“It's not every day you get to spend your birthday surrounded by a winter wonderland in the middle of summer,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying in a statement. “It made for a day I won't soon forget, and a unique reminder of why I love serving in this area. It's just one of those moments that makes working up here so special.”
In northern Nevada, rain fell in the runup to the annual Burning Man festival, prompting organizers to close the entrance gate for most of Saturday before reopening. Torrential rains upended last year’s festival, turning the celebration and its temporary city into a muddy quagmire.
It also snowed overnight on Mammoth Mountain, a ski destination in California, with the National Weather Service warning hikers and campers to prepare for slick roads.
Record rainfall moved through Redding, Red Bluff and Stockton in Northern California on Saturday, the weather service said, and rain showers south of Lake Oroville were expected to continue into the evening.
A dusting of snow fell overnight on the crest of the Sierra Nevada around Tioga Pass, the weather service said. August snow has not occurred there since 2003, forecasters said.
Tioga Pass rises to more than 9,900 feet (3,017 meters) and serves as the eastern entryway to Yosemite. But it is usually closed much of each year by winter snow that can take one or two months to clear.
While the start of ski season is at least several months away, the hint of winter was welcomed by resorts.
“It’s a cool and blustery August day here at Palisades Tahoe, as a storm that could bring our first snowfall of the season moves in this afternoon!” the resort said in a social media post Friday.
The “anomalous cool conditions” will spread over much of the western US by Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Despite the expected precipitation, forecasters also warned of fire danger because of gusty winds associated with the passage of the cold front.
At the same time, a flash flood watch was issued for the burn scar of California's largest wildfire so far this year from Friday morning through Saturday morning.
The Park Fire roared across more than 671 square miles (1,748 square kilometers) after it erupted in late July near the Central Valley city of Chico and climbed up the western slope of the Sierra.
The fire became California's fourth-largest on record, but it has been substantially tamed recently. Islands of vegetation continue to burn within its existing perimeter, but evacuation orders have been canceled.
The state's wildfire season got off to an intense start amid extreme July heat. Blazes fed on dried-out vegetation that grew during back-to-back wet years. Fire activity has recently fallen into a relative lull.
Forecasts call for a rapid return of summer heat as the cold front departs.

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Archaeologists in Virginia Unearth Colonial-era Garden with Clues about Enslaved Gardeners

Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists continue their excavation of an 18th Century ornamental garden on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists continue their excavation of an 18th Century ornamental garden on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
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Archaeologists in Virginia Unearth Colonial-era Garden with Clues about Enslaved Gardeners

Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists continue their excavation of an 18th Century ornamental garden on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists continue their excavation of an 18th Century ornamental garden on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Archaeologists in Virginia are uncovering one of colonial America's most lavish displays of opulence: An ornamental garden where a wealthy politician and enslaved gardeners grew exotic plants from around the world.

Such plots of land dotted Britain’s colonies and served as status symbols for the elite. They were the 18th-century equivalent of buying a Lamborghini.

The garden in Williamsburg belonged to John Custis IV, a tobacco plantation owner who served in Virginia's colonial legislature. He is perhaps best known as the first father-in-law of Martha Washington. She married future US President George Washington after Custis’ son Daniel died.

Historians also have been intrigued by the elder Custis’ botanical adventures, which were well-documented in letters and later in books. And yet this excavation is as much about the people who cultivated the land as it is about Custis, The AP reported.

“The garden may have been Custis’ vision, but he wasn’t the one doing the work,” said Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that now owns the property. “Everything we see in the ground that’s related to the garden is the work of enslaved gardeners, many of whom must have been very skilled.”

Archaeologists have pulled up fence posts that were 3 feet (1 meter) thick and carved from red cedar. Gravel paths were uncovered, including a large central walkway. Stains in the soil show where plants grew in rows.

The dig also has unearthed a pierced coin that was typically worn as a good-luck charm by young African Americans. Another find is the shards of an earthenware chamber pot, which was a portable toilet, that likely was used by people who were enslaved.

Animals appear to have been intentionally buried under some fence posts. They included two chickens with their heads removed, as well as a single cow’s foot. A snake without a skull was found in a shallow hole that had likely contained a plant.

“We have to wonder if we’re seeing traditions that are non-European,” Gary said. “Are they West African traditions? We need to do more research. But it’s features like those that make us continue to try and understand the enslaved people who were in this space.”

The museum tells the story of Virginia’s colonial capital through interpreters and restored buildings on 300 acres (120 hectares), which include parts of the original city. Founded in 1926, the museum did not start telling stories about Black Americans until 1979, even though more than half of the 2,000 people who lived there were Black, the majority enslaved.

In recent years, the museum has boosted efforts to tell a more complete story, while trying to attract more Black visitors. It plans to reconstruct one of the nation’s oldest Black churches and is restoring what is believed to be the country’s oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children.

There also are plans to recreate Custis’ Williamsburg home and garden, known then as Custis Square. Unlike some historic gardens, the restoration will be done without the benefit of surviving maps or diagrams, relying instead on what Gary described as the most detailed landscape archaeology effort in the museum's history.

The garden disappeared after Custis' death in 1749. But the dig has determined it was about two-thirds the size of a football field, while descriptions from the time reference lead statues of Greek gods and topiaries trimmed into balls and pyramids.