Snow

Two frostbitten, emaciated horses were recovering inside a warm barn thanks to volunteers who spent the week before Christmas digging the animals out of snow in the mountains of northeastern British Columbia. Birgit Stutz said the rescuers cheered when they finally finished digging a half-mile escape route through the snow for the animals. The horses had been abandoned by a hunter and faced almost certain death. Over the course of a week, a growing number of residents trudged up the mountain with shovels in hand to dig out the escape pathway through 6-foot-deep snow.

The giant snowstorm that buried Big Bear Lake over the weekend seemed gentle and reassuring compared with the smoke, fire and evacuations the mountain resort has endured. Mother Nature, for now, acting motherly. In fact, despite slick roads, cars entombed by snow and freezing temperatures, it was pretty much impossible to find anyone willing to utter an unkind word about the weather.

The wave of storms battering Southern California began to take its toll Friday, causing avalanches that killed one skier and left another near death in Wrightwood, flooding roads and threatening additional damage as more rain approaches. The new round of storms was expected to begin about 6 tonight, bringing up to 5 inches of rain to Los Angeles County, up to 3 inches in Orange County and up to 8 inches in Riverside and San Bernardino counties by Monday morning.

Another snowstorm swept across New England on Wednesday, toppling seasonal snowfall records and dumping so much heavy snow on buildings that some collapsed. An unoccupied pizza shop collapsed at Weirs Beach in Laconia after the roof sagged about halfway into the two-story building and bowed the walls out, officials said. On Tuesday, several people had to flee as the roof fell in at the Over Easy Cafe in Ossipee, N.H. The dangerous snow load has kept roofing contractors and homeowners busy.

Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside -- bacteria. Atmospheric scientists have long known that under most conditions moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense into snow and rain. A study published Friday in the journal Science shows a large share of those so-called nucleators turn out to be bacteria that can affect plants. "Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature," said Brent C.

. -- When the first thief drove off with nearly a ton of rock salt last month, pilfered from a road de-icing firm's supply stored behind a strip mall, local police officers in this affluent Chicago northwestern suburb were flabbergasted. "It was so strange," said Buffalo Grove Police Commander Steve Husak. "Salt?" Then, as winter storms continued to bombard the Midwest with snow and sleet, there were reports of a second salt heist.

Snowmelt will raise half-empty Lake Powell 50 feet, opening a popular shortcut for boaters for the first time in five years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said. The Castle Rock Cut -- still a stretch of exposed rock -- will let house boats get to beaches and Rainbow Bridge National Monument more quickly from Wahweap Marina by shaving a dozen miles off the trip. The peninsula is expected to be covered by enough water for boating by mid-June.

The latest forecast on Mars calls for morning fog and swift-moving clouds -- along with light snow. The surprising weather report was part of the latest scientific findings from NASA's Phoenix lander, which has been taking measurements at the Martian north pole since May 25.

Everything is easier in L.A. Even the snow. New Yorkers spent Saturday shoveling sidewalks and swapping horror stories about the thousand canceled flights that made purgatories of local airports. Bostonians shuffled through drifts to stock up on water and candles in case an incoming ice storm fulfills predictions of downed power lines.

Some people may have dreamed of a very white Christmas and others feared an extremely wet one. But most people in Southern California were relieved that a set of back-to-back storms through Thursday night brought less snow and rain than originally predicted. Strong and potentially dangerous wind caused cancellation of skiing on some newly powdered slopes in Wrightwood and Big Bear, and winter storm warnings were to remain in effect through midday today in the mountains.