Rain, Wind Will ‘Dent’ Dry Spell, Not End It

The second substantial storm system in less than a week washed into California on Tuesday, bringing tornadoes, gale-force winds and what forecasters said is the promise of enough additional rain and snow to “put a significant dent” in the long spring dry spell.

“We could get a half-inch of rain in the Los Angeles area, and maybe an inch or more closer to the mountains, with some localized flooding from brief, heavy thundershowers,” said Janice Roth, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The National Weather Service said .16 of an inch of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center by 9 p.m. Tuesday--raising the season’s total to 9.65 inches--with a steady rain continuing to fall. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said its unofficial gauges in the San Fernando Valley had recorded more than an inch of rain by 9 p.m.

“They’re also getting quite a bit of rain up north, and more is expected up there,” Roth said. “This should provide significant relief from the dry spell. . . . The situation is improving.”

Problems Will Remain

Managers of Northern California watersheds cautioned, however, that while the precipitation is welcome, it does not mean the state’s water problems are over.

“It would take a tremendous amount of rain to get us to a normal situation,” said Bill Helms, a spokesman for the state Flood Operations Center in Sacramento.

At least as important as the rain was the snow that was falling in the Sierra Nevada on Tuesday night. The Sierra snowpack--considerably below normal this year--is the principal source of water for the state, providing much of the runoff funneled to Southern California through the California Aqueduct.

By nightfall Tuesday, more than 18 inches of snow had fallen at some reporting stations in the Sierra, and the National Weather Service said as much as 2 feet more was expected by noon today.

Mountain Storm Warnings

Winter storm warnings were issued throughout the Sierra, with gale winds compounding hazards posed by the heavy snowfall.

A small tornado damaged about 25 homes and battered some farm buildings in the Folsom area, about 20 miles east of Sacramento, at about 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“It went through generally raising hell,” said Folsom Police Chief Hal Barker. “But we were pretty lucky, considering nobody was hurt.”

A second tornado was spotted near Folsom about an hour later, another funnel cloud was reported in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta town of Hood, about 10 miles south of Sacramento, and still another was spotted in Lockeford, another 20 miles to the southeast, but there were no additional reports of damage.

Meteorologists said the showers that dampened Los Angeles streets early Tuesday were the result of a routine onshore flow of marine air and not from the storm, which did not begin moving into the Southland until nightfall.

No Measurable Amount

Those morning showers were not heavy enough to be measured in weather service rain gauges, but they were enough to contribute to dozens of traffic accidents, several of them involving school buses.

Seven pupils headed for the A. E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas suffered minor injuries when their bus was unable to stop in time on wet pavement and skidded into a car leaving a driveway, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Police said a boy was slightly injured when he fell from his seat as his bus braked sharply to avoid a skidding car in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

Forty-six children escaped injury when their bus was involved in what the CHP described as a “fender-bender” on wet pavement in the Sherman Oaks area.

Rush-Hour Rain

Streets in Southern California dried by mid-day Tuesday, but the rain resumed in earnest as the storm moved inland later.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation reported heavy congestion downtown during the evening rush hour, and the Highway Patrol said there were “twice as many accidents as usual” on Los Angeles-area freeways.

At 9 p.m., the transition roads from the westbound Ventura Freeway to the Golden State Freeway had to be closed because of flooding.

The Dodgers-Padres baseball game was rained out Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. It was only the 13th rain-out in the 26-year history of the ballpark.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported storm-caused power outages affecting about 400 customers in Hollywood and Studio City Tuesday night, but service was restored within two hours.

Roth said the rain--accompanied by winds gusting up to 40 m.p.h. and occasional lightning, thunder and even some hail--should continue here today and tonight, with considerable cloudiness and a few showers on Thursday before the storm system moves out to the east.

While temperatures edged up toward comfortable levels on Tuesday--the Los Angeles Civic Center high was 68 after an overnight low of 57, with humidity ranging between 42% and 90%--it’s expected to cool off today and Thursday, with the downtown thermometer pushing no higher than the low 60s.

The cool temperatures will mean some snow for Southern California mountains, with accumulations of 3 to 5 inches expected at resort areas above 5,000 feet.

Back to Normal

Roth said the rainy weather is actually a return to normal for this time of year, with the high altitude jet stream--which had been swinging across the northern edge of California, blocking the southerly flow of storms from the Pacific--returning to its more customary course across the central and southern portions of the state.

She said the storm that invaded California on Tuesday was right on course for this time of year, trailing down the West Coast before taking a slow left turn off California and heading inland. It followed the same course as a storm Thursday that deposited more than a quarter of an inch of rain at the Los Angeles Civic Center, with as much as 2 inches in some foothill communities.

Roth said that with the jet stream expected to remain pretty much in place for the time being, there could be more rain on the way, although at the moment there are no more big storms headed this way.

She said a weather system currently well to our north could bring cloudiness--and the chance of some sprinkles--by the weekend.