Cloudy Skies to Bring County Only Scattered Showers

Despite hopes for a good-sized storm to end the dry season, a trace of rain should only dot windshields and hardly touch the sidewalks as a weak storm front rolls into Southern California, forecasters predicted Tuesday.

A very weak, upper-level low-pressure system left half an inch of rain in San Francisco and Sacramento on Tuesday, but will only have enough to tease Orange County with some scattered showers ending by midday today, said Marty McKewon, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“The problem is that as the storm system approached California, it split,” he said. “Most of the storm’s energy went across Central and Northern California. The other, weaker piece dove south.”

With the chance of rain at 30% to 40%, Orange County will receive one-quarter of an inch of rain at most, he said. Highs today and Thursday will be in the mid-60s. Overnight lows will drop into the mid-40s, with some inland areas expecting bracing temperatures in the upper 30s.