Southland Only Gets Sprinkles : Northern California Hit by Heavy Rain, Lightning; 1 Killed

A storm that began passing through Los Angeles on Saturday brought scattered light showers that slickened freeways, causing a rash of fender-benders, and threatened to remain through the weekend.

For the most part, however, the heavy storm that forecasters feared would drench Southern California, dampening spirits at outdoor fiestas marking Mexico’s Independence Day did not occur.

While only one-hundredth of an inch of rain fell at Civic Center, a more brutal weather system pounded Northern California with rain and lightning that caused widespread power outages. More than a inch of rain pelted Sacramento and a bolt of lightning struck and killed a sandlot baseball player in the Sonoma County town of Cotati.

Overcast Skies

In Los Angeles, where a 40% chance of rain was predicted for today, Saturday amounted to little more than a day of overcast skies and intermittent morning showers that chased out the smog. A few scattered showers were also reported Saturday night.

“It looked quite ominous a couple days ago, but it never materialized,” said Bill Hoffer, a specialist for the National Weather Service. Nevertheless, it represented the area’s first precipitation since May 13, when the city got five one-hundredths of an inch rain.

The gloomy weather marked the approach of tropical storm Octave, which was moving north from Mexico. It spawned a low-pressure system that resulted in the rain and lightning that lashed much of Northern California.

Though the tropical storm was within 300 miles of San Diego by Saturday afternoon, it was steadily losing power. “It looks like Octave is pretty much dissolved,” said Bill Hibbert, a forecaster for WeatherData Inc., which supplies weather information to The Times. “It’s just a little spin of clouds now.”

It was still enough of a spin, however, that the same kind of scattered showers that rolled through on Saturday are expected to remain today. They will be accompanied by temperatures in the mid-70s, significantly cooler than Saturday’s high temperature of 81 degrees at Civic Center.

Minimal Impact

Rain caused the usual rash of minor traffic accidents Saturday, police and California Highway Patrol officers said, although they described the impact as minimal. “It was just enough to clean up the smog and mess up my windshield,” said one CHP sergeant.

Bracing for the worst, Mayor Tom Bradley issued a statement warning surfers, anglers and swimmers to stay out of Santa Monica Bay in the event of major rainfall because of expected elevated bacteria levels from street runoff.

While Southern California escaped relatively unscathed, the storms were causing their share of problems for Northern California.

A 26-year-old Sebastopol man was struck by lightning as he was playing baseball with a few friends at 8:15 a.m. at a public park in Cotati, about 10 miles south of Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Gary Lee Albritton and the other players fell to the ground when a bright flash and loud bang swept across the playing field in Myrtle Park. All but Albritton stood up. The man was rushed to Petaluma Valley Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m., said Lynn Von Hoogenstyn, a sheriff’s community services assistant.

Lightning interrupted electrical service to thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in the Santa Cruz area, according to a company spokesman. But the first official ride of the Napa Valley Wine Train took off despite a power failure caused by a lightning strike before it left the station.

Hibbert said that unlike the typical winter pattern, Northern California storms were expected to move mostly east into the Sierra and Nevada, instead of south into Southern California.