Warm Air Brings Rain and Scattered Flooding

A southeasterly flow of tropical air will bring Orange County continued warm, moist weather with a chance of scattered showers for another day and a half, according to the National Weather Service. The same air mass also triggered heavy rains and flooding elsewhere in the Southwest.

And lifeguards at Orange County beaches were warning of possibly dangerous surf conditions.

A tropical depression approximately 650 miles south of Los Angeles has been responsible for the relatively humid weather for the past several days, a Weather Service spokeswoman said.

Thursday’s temperatures topped out at 79 degrees in Santa Ana and 85 in downtown Los Angeles, with a relative humidity around 40%.

Flash-Flood Watches

While much of Orange County has experienced warm, moist afternoons, the current weather pattern has been bringing showers and thunderstorms to other areas. The National Weather Service issued flash-flood watches for mountain and desert regions Thursday when sudden rains washed through dry ravines and gulches.

In Las Vegas, nearly .75 of an inch of rain was reported in less than half an hour Thursday morning. The downpour flooded highway dips and underpasses to stall motorists and cause a power blackout for about 2,000 homes and businesses, authorities said. But by early afternoon, the trouble seemed to be over.

Numerous spots along Interstate 15 in the gambling center were covered with two to three feet of rainwater, forcing closure of some sections of the highway.

Members of a vacationing Ontario, Calif., family were forced to climb onto the roof of their van when the vehicle was virtually submerged in a Las Vegas underpass.

A Token Gesture

Nancy Pedrotti, who waded from the water with her father, two daughters and two young nieces, said they had not even intended to stop in Las Vegas, planning only to “throw $20 out of the window as we drove by.”

Those plans were changed by the weather.

Heavy flooding also was reported in the Lake Mead area as a flash flood warning remained in effect for Mohave County in northeastern Arizona.

In Southern California, heavy rain and flooding were reported in the Lucerne Valley, southeast of Victorville and at Joshua Tree National Monument. In the Twentynine Palms area, a severe afternoon thunderstorm produced golf ball-sized hail and strong, gusty winds, the weather service said.

San Diego County also had intense downpours, with Descanso in the inland southern portion reporting 1.22 inches of rain and Palomar Mountain in the north getting 1.33. There also was some flooding at Cuyamaca Park.

Many of the rainstorms were accompanied by thunder and what the weather service called “frequent cloud-to-ground lightning.”

Flash flood watches remained in effect in most places until late Thursday night.

Rip Tide Warnings

Although the tropical depression is expected to dissipate by Saturday afternoon, lifeguards at Orange County beaches expect moderate to heavy surf today and possibly dangerous currents through the weekend. Heavy surf over the last several days may have churned up the underwater floor, creating rip tides through Monday, according to Steve Seim, marine safety officer at Huntington City Beach.

Warmer water temperatures--71 degrees at Huntington Beach Thursday--could combine with the currents to keep lifeguards busy, he said, adding: “If we get more people in the rip, we get more rescues.”

Officials at the Orange County Fair, which closes Sunday, do not expect the humid weather to keep visitors from the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds. “It hasn’t seemed to hurt us at all” so far, said spokeswoman Christeen Burnet.

She added that the fair may break attendance records by drawing 125,000 people during its final three days.

Highs today are expected to be in the middle 80s and low 90s, with partly cloudy skies and a 20% chance of rain. Temperatures will fall to the low 70s and mid-60s tonight; mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 80s and mid-90s are predicted for Saturday.