Arctic Storm Dumps Snow, Rain, Hail on Southland

The Arctic storm front that had been in such a hurry to get ashore was reluctant to leave Tuesday, bringing Southern California cold showers, hail, snow, thunder, lightning and wind as well as some all-time low readings for daytime temperatures.

The blustery wintry weather triggered by a cold upper-level air mass was blamed for the Tuesday evening crash of a light plane in the ocean off Malibu, and for forcing a jet trainer with astronaut Brewster H. Shaw aboard to make an emergency landing at Los Alamitos.

Lightning strikes hampered the attempts of a Coast Guard helicopter crew to find the wreckage of the 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.”

Three Coast Guard patrol boats and two lifeguard craft from Marina del Rey also were searching for the light airplane, which had taken off from Van Nuys Airport during the afternoon. The number and identity of people on board were not immediately known.

A T-38 jet trainer carrying astronaut Shaw apparently also was struck by lightning, National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said, as it approached the airstrip at Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center on Tuesday afternoon. Both engines caught fire.

A NASA spokesman said the plane “barely made the runway” after one of the engines was shut down. Neither Shaw, 41, nor the plane’s pilot, Robert A. Rivers, 35, was injured.

As hail spattered parts of downtown Los Angeles and snow fell at low elevations in the Southland mountains, San Diego had its lowest maximum temperature for Feb. 24 in nearly 100 years--a mere 55 degrees at Lindbergh Field. The previous record was 56 degrees, set in 1890 and tied in 1899 and 1911.

UC Riverside and Santa Maria both had maximum temperatures of 45 degrees, record low maximum temperatures for February in both places.

Snow in Mountains

Snow was down to the 1,500-foot level in some spots, and was falling in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills and on the hillsides south of Palmdale. Small boys were seen pelting cars with snowballs in the upper reaches of La Crescenta. Only cars with chains were being allowed on the Angeles Crest Highway above the Foothill Freeway after 4 p.m.

The California Highway Patrol closed the Grapevine (Interstate 5) at Lake Hughes Road in the Castaic area at 7:12 p.m. because of blowing snow and icy pavement. CHP spokesman Monty Keifer said efforts to keep the highway open with snowplows and salt were abandoned. Big Bear reported 17 inches of new snow by nightfall, while 12 inches fell at Julian in eastern San Diego County and 16 inches came down at Cuyamaca State Park nearby.

Numerous motorists were stranded on California 118 near Lake Arrowhead as snow and ice made driving hazardous. Similar conditions confronted drivers in the Antelope Valley.

Pilots reported water spouts during the afternoon off Gaviota in Santa Barbara County.

Strong winds tore roofs from several buildings in Victorville. Oxnard also reported destruction of three greenhouses by high winds.

Snowflakes were reported in San Pedro, Tujunga and Pasadena, of all the unlikely places.Hail fell at widely scattered points, including San Gabriel, Westlake and Santa Maria.

Just before 8 p.m., lightning struck the radio tower of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Communication Center at 1320 N. Eastern Ave. in City Terrace, leaping to the main building and temporarily knocking out the department’s power supply and computer system.

Fire Capt. David Moore said, however, that emergency power was quickly turned on and “we didn’t lose anything, luckily.”

Freeway Problems

In Los Angeles, a heavy afternoon downpour caused trouble on the southbound Long Beach Freeway. A dump truck went out of control just south of the Santa Ana Freeway, smashing through the center divider. The California Highway Patrol said two southbound lanes and one northbound lane were blocked for the better part of three hours.

Later, a semi truck-trailer rig overturned on the San Bernardino Freeway at the transition road from the Foothill Freeway in the Pomona area, causing a similar traffic snarl.

By 4 p.m., the National Weather Service reported that .20 of an inch of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing the season total to 6.43 inches. That is far below the normal total to date: 10.71 inches. By this time last year, the rain totaled 12.13 inches.

Big Bear Lake recorded 1.83 inches, Culver City .13, El Toro .67, Monrovia .23, Mt. Wilson .66, Newport Beach .72 and Palm Springs .36.

About 11,000 Southern California Edison Co. customers were without power for varying lengths of time during the day, a spokesman said, but most had the lights back on by Tuesday evening. The outages were largely in the Bell, Maywood, Bell Gardens and Downey areas.

Rain and snow hampered an air and ground search in the San Bernardino Mountains for John Morrow and his wife, Patricia, who left Boulder City, Nev., Monday noon in a Cessna with their three dogs, but failed to arrive at Fullerton Airport as planned.

A Civil Air Patrol spokesman said two search planes, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s helicopter and two ground teams began looking in the Big Bear-Lake Arrowhead region at 8 a.m. Tuesday, but bad visibility prevented others from joining the search.

The National Weather Service predicted that after some more thundershowers Tuesday night, today should be partly cloudy, but mostly sunny and perhaps three degrees warmer than Tuesday’s Civic Center high of 55 degrees.

Quick Departure

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 downtown Los Angeles low temperature Tuesday was 42. High relative humidity was 89% and the low was 47%.

Thursday, the forecasters said, should be warmer, with highs in the 60s and local gusty winds 15 to 25 m.p.h.

Late Tuesday, however, travelers were warned to be careful in virtually all Southern California mountain areas because of occasional snow, fog and generally poor visibility. The snow level was down to 2,500 feet.

And the weather service issued a special warning to boaters as an array of thunderstorms approached the coast Tuesday afternoon, bringing heavy rain, erratic gusty winds of 30 to 40 knots, rough seas and possible hail. Small-craft sailors were advised to “seek safe haven or remain close to shore for the next few hours.”

The forecasters said the pressure difference between a stationary high-pressure system off the Oregon coast and a low-pressure system over eastern Nevada was causing “gale-force winds” offshore.

Dead Whale in Surf

The heavy surf carried a dead whale from Bolsa Chica Beach in Orange County, where it washed up on Sunday, to Huntington Beach--much to the distress of the residents of an apartment building there.

There was a travel advisory, too, in the Sierra Nevada and northeast California because of continuing snow showers, slippery roads and heavy rain.

Arizona and Nevada had problems as the front moved inland, sweeping the northern and central parts of Arizona with periods of heavy snow. By mid-afternoon, Flagstaff had 20 inches of it. Interstate 40 across northern Arizona was closed from Ashfork to Winslow.

Motorists in southern Nevada were warned to be ready for “winter driving conditions.”

Contributing to this article were Times staff writers Kenneth Chavez and Steve Emmons in Orange County, Doug Smith in the San Fernando Valley and Nieson Himmel in Los Angeles. .