First Spring Weekend Is Cool and Wet

Ski resort owners rejoiced and weekend seafarers fumed Saturday as the first weekend of spring brought more than an inch of snow to most mountain resorts, rain showers to the valleys and deserts and warnings of choppy seas along the coastline of Southern California.

In Orange County, authorities said, streets and freeways were clogged from a rash of minor traffic accidents as 0.32 of an inch of rain fell in Santa Ana and 0.50 of an inch fell in San Juan Capistrano. Hail fell briefly in the evening in the City of Orange. Earlier in the day, the temperature had reached as high as 64 degrees in Santa Ana.

Meteorologists attributed the conditions to a major Arctic weather front moving southeastward across the state and forecast much the same conditions for this morning, easing off to partial cloudiness by this afternoon.

Interstate 5 was closed to northbound traffic Saturday evening in Castaic because of “zero” visibility caused by heavy snow, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The CHP closed the northbound lanes at 6:39 p.m. at Lake Hughes Road, Officer Kent Buzbee said. CHP officers had been escorting drivers through the snow-obscured area for most of the afternoon, he said.

The high temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Saturday was 56 degrees, with relative humidity ranging between 66% and 90%. By 4 p.m. the storm had dropped 0.47 of an inch of rain, bringing the season total to 7.53 inches--five inches below normal and nearly 10 inches below the amount that had fallen by this time last year.

Mt. Wilson Report

It was wetter elsewhere. Mt. Wilson reported 0.97 of an inch by 4 p.m., while Los Angeles International Airport had recorded 0.57 of an inch, Santa Barbara and Pasadena both had 0.54, and San Gabriel had 0.49.

More than an inch of snow fell during the morning and afternoon at the ski resort area of Big Bear, and the California Highway Patrol was requiring chains or snow tires on all motor vehicles venturing above 3,000 feet, which was expected to be the overnight snow level.

A winter storm watch was in effect for the Owens Valley, where snow and winds gusted to 40 m.p.h. at times, and small craft warnings were in effect along the coast from Point Conception to Santa Rosa Island and from Dana Point to the Mexican border.