A Little More Rain May Be on the Way

A patchy cotton field of clouds drifted in from the sea Tuesday in the wake of a cold front that scattered showers across Southern California, and the National Weather Service said a few more drops of rain might fall late today.

Cloudiness was expected to increase, blotting out the last traces of sunshine by early afternoon, and forecasters said there was at least a 20% chance of light showers before Thursday morning.

A weak storm system, the weather service explained, was spotted heading eastward toward the Central California coast. The system was expected to come ashore today, reaching Southern California by afternoon.

But any moisture it brings should be the last for a while, according to meteorologists, who predicted fair skies and slightly warmer temperatures for the rest of the week as atmospheric pressure increases along the coast.

The high temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Tuesday was 62 degrees with relative humidity ranging from 44% to 83%. The forecast called for about the same today.

Monday’s storm dropped a total of .24 of an inch of rain on downtown Los Angeles, bringing the season total to 7.91 inches--considerably above the 5.24 inches that would be normal for this time of year, but still more than an inch below the 9.28 inches that had fallen by this time last year.

The storm also left .95 of an inch of moisture at San Juan Capistrano, .87 inch at Beaumont, .46 inch at Torrance, .35 inch at Riverside and .29 at Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.