Southland Likely to Get Just Taste of Northern Storms

If the storms sweeping into California could just learn to hang together, the southern part of the state could get its share of the rain and snow falling in the north, forecasters said Tuesday.

“The problem is that as the storm system approached California, it split,” said Marty McKewon, a meteorologist with Weatherdata Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “Most of the storm’s energy went across Central and Northern California. The other, weaker piece dove south.”

While nearly half an inch of rain fell in places such as San Francisco and Sacramento, and snow began coating ski runs in the Sierra, Los Angeles will have to settle for only one-tenth of an inch from a storm system today--maybe, McKewon said.

“Mountain areas may get as much as half an inch,” he said.

A very weak upper-level low-pressure system will move across Southern California this morning, causing a few scattered showers, McKewon said.

“Unfortunately, amounts will be very light,” he said. “A second storm system could affect Southern California late Thursday night and Friday.”

But that system also looks like a weak sister, a storm that will lose its energy by the time it is welcomed to L.A., McKewon said.

“The problem is that the storms are originating in the Gulf of Alaska and then diving southeast,” he said. “A lot of the moisture is getting wrung out in the mountains of Oregon and Northern California. By the time it gets to Southern California, it has weakened considerably.”