Rare Element Called ‘Rain’ May Show Up in Southland

A rare phenomenon of nature that Webster’s defines as “water falling to earth in drops” and meteorologists call “rain” could come to the Los Angeles area this weekend, weather forecasters said Friday.

Guarded in their predictions, forecasters agreed that an intense rain is unlikely. Even a spritz, they say, would be unusual by recent standards.

Since July 1, only .02 of an inch of precipitation has been measured at the Los Angeles Civic Center, compared to a historic norm of 1.42 inches over that period. The last significant rain occurred on Memorial Day, when a freak storm dropped 1.17 inches on the Civic Center.

As for the prospects of such a downpour this weekend, or even a steady shower, “it doesn’t look very likely,” said Steve Burback, a forecaster for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

A storm system expected to arrive Sunday night “doesn’t really have any punch,” he added. Burback predicted “just small amounts here and there, maybe more in the mountains,” on Sunday and Monday nights.

The paucity of precipitation continues to worsen California’s drought, now in its fourth year.

If it were to rain, the immediate benefit would be to reduce demand for water to irrigate lawns and gardens, said Bob Gomperz of the Metropolitan Water District. Rain would help replenish Southern California’s depleted ground water supplies, which provide about one-third of the region’s water. The rest comes via aqueduct from Northern California and the Colorado River.

Water officials are hopeful that winter storms eventually will break the drought. The two primary storage reservoirs in the State Water Project--Lake Oroville, north of Sacramento, and the San Luis Reservoir, west of Fresno,--now contain 1.09 million acre-feet of water, compared to 3.6 million acre-feet a year ago. “And we thought last year was dry,” Gomperz said. “This year, it’s parched.”

In Southern California, rain has not always been so scarce. The average annual rainfall at the Civic Center is about 14.9 inches; as recently as 1986, 18 inches fell. Since then, however, every year has been below normal, bottoming out at 4.56 inches in 1989. So far in 1990, 7.37 inches have been measured.

The 1989 mark was the lowest since 1953--lower even than the 6.54 inches recorded in 1972.