Storm Dumps Snow, Rain, Hail on Region : Lightning Hits 2-Engine Plane and NASA Jet

On Feb. 24 through Orange County’s recorded history, the weather has been a little colder and a lot wetter, but probably not as weird.

In Seal Beach, lightning struck a National Aeronautics and Space Administration jet, forcing a NASA astronaut to make an emergency landing in Los Alamitos.

Lightning strikes also hampered attempts by a Coast Guard helicopter crew to find the wreckage of a twin-engine Piper Seminole that lost contact with Los Angeles International Airport and vanished about a mile off Malibu at about 6:20 p.m. Ken Mattison, a restaurant employee, said he saw lightning hit the plane and that “a bunch of sparks bounced off of it, just like fireworks.” The plane had taken off earlier from Van Nuys Airport. The number and identity of people on board were not immediately known.

In Huntington Beach, the tides washed a dead whale almost to the doorstep of expensive condominiums.

For a brief period Tuesday morning, snow closed the Ortega Highway leading from San Juan Capistrano to Lake Elsinore.

Hail pelted Irvine and Dana Point and many other Orange County locales, then melted. Snowflakes fell onto Santiago Canyon Road and disappeared as they touched the ground.

“Mean gusts” of wind overnight, some of them “just howling,” were reported in Placentia.

And the rain was so erratic that gauges seemed to be telling lies. County rain meters reported that during the daylight hours, only .24 inch fell on Costa Mesa while almost twice as much, .47 inch, fell just across the city boundary at John Wayne Airport.

“Every once in a while, it just kind of downpours, then it stops, then it downpours again,” said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Jim Watson.

During those hours, Santiago Peak received 1.1 inch, the heaviest rainfall in the county, while Cypress and Brea gauges reported no rain at all.

So what’s going on?

William Hoffer, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said Southern California is simply getting a taste of what much of the rest of the country expects during winter: a powerful blast of arctic air.

He said air from the polar region seldom makes it to Southern California because it is blocked by the storms that typically approach from the west.

But two pressure systems--high pressure off the coast and upper-level low pressure to the east--are acting like the whisks of an eggbeater, turning against one another, pulling in the cold air from the north and shooting it southward into Southern California.

The result Tuesday was a low temperature in El Toro of 36 degrees, only one degree warmer than the Feb. 24 record low set in Anaheim in 1953.

(There was no threat to the Feb. 24 rainfall record, however. In 1968, 3.91 inches fell in El Toro.)

The sight of snow was closer than usual.

Ruth Patterson at the Pali Cafe in Silverado Canyon said there was snow in the upper canyon at the Cleveland National Forest boundary, a rare sight.

Bill Dennis, a communications supervisor for the City of Garden Grove, could see snow on the foothills behind El Toro as he drove to work Tuesday. “Oh, I love it,” he said. “I’m a Californian, and I really don’t like snow . . . but, oh, I love to drive to work and look at the snow on the mountains.”

The drive over wet pavement didn’t seem to be as dangerous as it usually is, according to the California Highway Patrol. There were fewer accidents than last week “because they’ve had rain for a couple of days and there’s not as much oil on the roadway,” said Officer John Chilcote of the CHP’s Westminster office. The first rains “bring all the oil to the surface,” and the pavement isn’t as slippery now, he said.

The weather had its grim side, however. Rain and snow hampered an air and ground search in the San Bernardino Mountains for a Fullerton couple whose Cessna airplane, en route from Nevada, failed to arrive at Fullerton Airport, a Civil Air Patrol spokesman said.

The pilot, John Morrow, his wife, Patricia, and their three dogs took off from a Boulder City, Nev., airport about noon Monday but did not arrive at Fullerton Airport two hours later as expected, said Capt. Gordon Barnett, who is coordinating the search from Cable Airport in Upland.

Barnett said two search planes, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s helicopter and two ground teams began looking for the Morrows’ plane in areas near Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Bad weather reduced visibility and prevented more rescue units from joining the search, he said.

The couple reportedly carried food, water and first-aid supplies on board, Barnett said.

Orange County shelter operators reported unusually heavy demand from the homeless trying to escape the cold, wet weather.

Father Thomas at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach said the usual clientele of 30 has risen to 41. A spokesman for the Orange County Rescue Mission in Santa Ana said 38 people had sought overnight shelter there, 10 more than usual. Some had to bed down in the mission lobby, he said.

Relief is imminent, however, according to forecasters.

The massive storm front that blanketed several western states “should move out rather quickly” once it makes up its mind to depart today, said Cary Schudy of the Earth Environment Service in San Francisco.

The National Weather Service predicted cloudy and still quite cool temperatures today in Orange County, with highs in the mid-50s to low 60s, lows in the mid-40s and a 20% chance of rain.

Skies should clear and temperatures rise slightly on Thursday, with clear weather and increasing warmth extending through the weekend, although gusty northeast winds may mar Friday.