Southland Bounces Back From First Major Storm of New Year

Coastal areas of Southern California were finally beginning to dry out after the first major storm of the year Monday, but snow was still falling in the mountains, and beaches continued to take a beating from heavy surf.

The arctic airmass that dropped 1.12 inchs of rain at Los Angeles Civic Center--and more than twice that amount in the coastal foothills--rumbled away toward Arizona in an early-morning fulmination of thunder and lightning.

Minor flooding that afflicted areas where flood control facilities were overburdened had mostly been drained--if not dried--by Monday afternoon; lights were shining again in neighborhoods blacked out by the rains, and a transition road between the Orange and Pomona Freways that was closed by a mudslide on Sunday was open again by 6 a.m.

But travelers advisories remained in effect for west to northwest winds gusting to 45 m.p.h. in the high desert, while the National Weather Service issued small craft advisories for winds to 30 knots and 8-to-13-foot seas in the inner and outer waters from Point Conception to the Mexican Border.

Breakers running 5 to 6 feet were reported along the coast from Zuma to San Diego, and minor surf damage was reported on a few west-facing beaches.

Forecasters made amends, however, by predicting a week or so of fair skies.

Cool, dry air was moving into the region in the wake of the eastbound storm, they explained, and should stay around for a few days under the influence of a high pressure area located about 980 miles to the southwest.

Meanwhile, the weather service said there was still a slight chance of overnight rain or snow in the mountains.

“It’s been snowing here, off and on, all through the day,” Big Bear resorts spokeswoman Jeanne Haskins said Monday. “You still need chains on your car to go above 4,000 feet. But they’ll have the roads clear as soon as the snow stops falling . . . and real, made-in-heaven snow is what we’ve been praying for since September!”

By late afternoon Monday, more than a foot of snow had blanketed ski slopes in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains and resort operators said their telephones were swamped with reservation calls.

“We missed Thanksgiving and we missed Christmas and we missed New Years,” Haskins said. “But the rest of the year is beginning to look like a winner.”

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Monday was 62 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 51% to 96%, and the weather service said it should be about the same today with a minor warming trend expected later in the week.

The storm brought Los Angeles’ seasonal rainfall total to 5.11 inches--1.11 inches more than had fallen by this time a year ago, and .20 of an inch above the amount that would be normal for the season.