Rain, Hail Surprise Even Forecaster

Southern California got some surprise showers, thunder, lightning and hail Monday as an upper-level disturbance slid across the area with a little more enthusiasm than expected.

In Manhattan Beach, two elderly women escaped injury when lightning struck a rooftop television antenna, traveling through plumbing to blow out a window and blow holes in both sides of the house.

Although forecasters had predicted no more than partly cloudy skies and a “slight chance” of showers over the mountains, the system proved fairly wet and mean-tempered as it moved through the Los Angeles Basin and on toward the southern deserts.

“What happened was it developed and intensified a little quicker and more impressively than I thought,” said meteorologist Rick Dittmann of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times.

Dittmann said the system should be gone by this morning, leaving the Southland “just a tad warmer” today and Wednesday.

Although spotty showers had dampened much of the Southland by mid-afternoon, the National Weather Service reported only .06 of an inch of rain at the Los Angeles Civic Center by 4:30 p.m. The same amount was measured in Long Beach by that hour, while Monrovia had .07; Mt. Wilson, .11; Newport Beach, .08; Pasadena, .04; Santa Ana, .15, and Santa Monica, .44.

Hail fell in Santa Monica and Santa Ana, as well as in several other locations. Thunder was heard over the Valley and elsewhere.

Monday’s Civic Center high temperature was 53 after an overnight low of 42. The high relative humidity was 71% and the low was 51%.

The weather service predicted Southland highs in the upper 50s today and in the upper 50s to low 60s Wednesday.

The weather service said gusty west to northwest winds could be expected over the mountains and deserts for the next several days.

Shortly after noon Monday, Esther McDermott, 78, and Lee Goodwin, 76, were in Goodwin’s Manhattan Beach home in the 900 block of 1st Street, when a lightning bolt hit the 15-foot-tall TV antenna attached to a sewer vent on the roof.

Manhattan Beach Fire Capt. Steve Dixon said the bolt apparently followed piping down through the walls, shattering a bathroom window and blowing holes in the stucco on both sides of the house. “It was really bizarre,” Dixon said.

McDermott and Goodwin, who were not hurt, said they first heard loud thunder, then a “crack.” Goodwin said she at first had no idea what had happened, adding, “It shook it (the house) up.”