Showers Make the Going Tough on Freeways in the Southland

A storm system that had been stalled off the California coast over the weekend finally decided to move inland Monday, dampening the Southland and causing the usual slick-pavement freeway collisions.

Rain stippled the state from Monterey to the Mexican border as an upper-level low-pressure system picked up some subtropical moisture and then was drawn eastward by the influence of a storm pattern over the Pacific Northwest.

National Weather Service forecasters late Monday estimated that rainfall along the coast would average about an inch and that the Southern California mountains could get as much as 3 inches.

By early Monday evening, however, rainfall amounts were generally less than .10 of an inch in the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Civic Center and Long Beach had recorded a mere .01 while Santa Catalina Island had .12, Culver City had .06 and Santa Monica had .12.

But as the storm moved toward the coast later in the night, heavy rainfall was reported from Santa Barbara to San Diego, where half an inch was recorded at Lindbergh Field between 8 and 9 p.m.

The Department of Water and Power said about 1,600 customers in North Hollywood and parts of the Hollywood Hills were without electricity for a time Monday night due to storm-related outages.

And some small rock and mud slides were reported in the Malibu area, but no road closures were reported.

After what the weather service said would be a showery night and morning, a drier and more westerly air flow was expected to develop tonight. And, other than some possible trailing showers late today, the forecasters said, Southern California should have fair weather the rest of the week.

As rain became general throughout the Los Angeles Basin early Monday afternoon, there were at least three accidents involving overturned trucks on the Golden State and Simi Valley-San Fernando Valley freeways in the Pacoima area.

There were some injuries, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said, but he did not immediately know how many.

Another truck overturned on the transition road from the eastbound Artesia Freeway to the northbound San Gabriel River Freeway.

An estimated dozen cars were involved in an early afternoon chain-reaction accident on the northbound Harbor Freeway transition lanes to the northbound Hollywood Freeway. No one was injured, said the CHP, but traffic was backed up for more than an hour.

High temperatures today should be in the low 70s, forecasters said. Monday’s downtown high was 74. Relative humidity ranged from 79% to 65%.

Before the rain began Monday, the season total for the Civic Center was 2.71 inches. The normal to date is 1.56.