Stormy Skies Bring Welcome Threat of Rain to Southland

A compact but powerful storm system moved into Southern California from the Pacific on Monday, tantalizing the drought-gripped region with the first significant rainfall in months and kicking up desert winds that forced the space shuttle Atlantis to delay its landing.

Forecasters offered a 60% chance of light rain,with up to half an inch possible in some coastal and mountain areas before skies begin to clear later today.

Their predicitions were right. By 9:30 p.m., showers were reported over a wide area as far south as San Diego.

“It’s not a real big storm system . . . but it does have a pretty good punch,” said Marty McKewon, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The storm came onshore in the Los Angeles area at Malibu just before 8 p.m., knocking out power to more than 700 Southern California Edison customers from Trancas Beach to the Ventura County line, a power company spokesman said.

Deputies at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu station described the rain as “heavy,” and power company officials said they had received at least three reports of downed power lines. Electrical service was being restored to customers “a few at a time,” the spokesman said, but he could not estimate when power would be fully restored.

One hopeful weather forecaster on a local television station reportedly counted six drops of rain by noon, but instruments at the National Weather Service had not detected any measurable precipitation by early evening.

Nevertheless, anticipation ran high. People pulled out their umbrellas and slickers, brought in their dogs and cats and cast watchful glances from office windows before stepping outside.

“All the media and every John Doe is calling in, wanting to know if it is really going to rain, what are the chances of rain, how much rain are we going to get, when is it going to rain,” said meteorologist Jerry McDuffie of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.

“It hasn’t rained in so long, and it’s just something people in California do out here, period.”

Just how long has it been since that last rain? In August, 0.02 of an inch of rain fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center--hardly enough to notice.

Back on May 28, a freak storm dumped 1.17 inches onto Los Angeles, setting a seasonal record and ruining Memorial Day weekend.

For the last four years, Southern California has been suffering a drought, with rainfall levels far below normal. The average amount of precipitation recorded by the end of October is 11.03 inches; this year, a mere 6.3 inches has been measured in the same period, McDuffie said.

Whatever rain should fall Monday night or early this morning, it is not expected to greatly relieve the parched local landscape. But it might be enough to make roads slick for the morning commute, and motorists were being cautioned to drive carefully.

“It could fool us and rain harder in some spots. But (the storm system) should move across at a decent rate so it won’t drop a lot of rain in any particular place,” McDuffie said. “It’s nothing that’s going to wash any houses away.”

Added McKewon: “The system looks like it’s got quite a bit of moisture. But I don’t think a widespread range, from Santa Barbara to San Diego, is going to get rain. Unfortunately, some locations will get very little, if any.”

The high temperature in downtown Los Angeles on Monday was a mild 64 degrees, with slightly warmer temperatures expected today. The long-range forecast calls for a sunny, windy Thankgiving, with highs in the low to mid 70s.

In the San Fernando Valley, meanwhile, where temperatures were expected to drop below 50 degrees overnight, city officials activated a foul-weather shelter program and opened a National Guard armory in Van Nuys for the homeless.

City vans picked up the homeless and took them to the armory, which holds 150 people, for a hot meal and a bed safe from the elements. By late Monday, however, only 18 people were in the shelter, officials said.

And high above the Mojave Desert, a disappointed shuttle crew had to remain in orbit an extra day--at least--after shifting gusts at the last minute set up crosswinds in excess of the 15-knot safety level for the spacecraft. Officials said the landing on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base could be delayed until as late as Wednesday.

The swirling winds are not expected to let up today, McKewon said.