Surprise Storm Dampens Southland, Moves On

A storm system that built up suddenly off the central coast threw a backhanded slap of rain at Southern California on Tuesday before moving onward and inland toward Nevada.

By late afternoon, .19 of an inch of rain had fallen at Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing the season total to 5.30 inches, which is 1.30 inches more than had fallen by Jan. 6, 1986, but only .28 more than the amount that is normal for this point in the season.

It was wetter elsewhere: Santa Barbara reported .61 of an inch during the first few hours of the storm, while .47 fell at Point Mugu, .38 at Santa Monica and Los Angeles International Airport, .35 in Torrance, .32 in Woodland Hills and .29 in Westwood.

No major traffic tie-ups or power outages were attributed to weather conditions during the early hours of the new storm, but locally heavy showers slowed afternoon freeway traffic for nearly half an hour in central Los Angeles and in the San Fernando Valley. The National Weather Service issued a travelers’ advisory for snow accompanied by gusty winds and poor visibility at resort levels in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains.

Two hikers who were reported missing during a blinding snowstorm in the Mt. Baldy area of the San Gabriel Mountains on Sunday were reported in “excellent” condition Tuesday after being rescued by a helicopter crew. Robert Loer and Patrick Lindberg, both 19 and both residents of Rancho Cucamonga, said they had become disoriented during Sunday’s storm and spent the next 40 hours huddled in a hollow tree trunk.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service and at Earth Environment Service, a private weather service based in San Francisco, agreed that Los Angeles might see a few more showers overnight and this morning--but after that, there seemed a good chance of fair skies and slowly rising temperatures for the remainder of the week.

Earth Environment spokesman Cary Schudy said predictions were still a bit chancy, however.

“The upper air patterns that push surface weather systems across the eastern Pacific are rather weak right now,” he said, “so everybody is having a lot of problems trying to make really accurate forecasts.

“Northern portions of the state would seem to be in for a new bout of wet weather starting Thursday--but this time it shouldn’t get as far south as Southern California.”

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Tuesday was 56 degrees, and the private and federal forecasters agreed that today ought to be five or six degrees warmer, with a rise into the upper 60s predicted for Thursday.