Rainstorm Makes a Quick, Intense Visit to Southland

Southern California’s second rainstorm within a week passed swiftly Wednesday, dampening the water-short region with more than a third of an inch of precipitation in some areas and dropping snow in the mountains.

Meteorologist Marty McKewon of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the storm was more intense than predicted. It brought rain to Northern and Central California and snow to the Sierra Nevada and Southland mountains.

But McKewon said the fast-moving front obviously did not carry the moisture of last week’s rainstorm, the largest of the season.

While both storms were helpful, they obviously were not drought breakers, according to John Weikel, a hydrologist for the Ventura County Flood Control Department.

“We need about three feet of water before we can talk about alleviating the drought,” Weikel said.

“The only benefit is, people will stop watering their lawns for a few days, farmers can stop irrigating for a couple of days. So it has a small benefit on the water supply.”

The same was true in other Southern California counties, where water customers face possible mandatory rationing after the Metropolitan Water District voted to require local water agencies to reduce their use of water by 17%.

The National Weather Service reported that 0.34 of an inch of rain had been recorded at the Los Angeles Civic Center by late afternoon Wednesday, raising the season total to 1.38 inches, compared to a normal rainfall of 5.35 inches.

Other areas had better luck, with 0.60 of an inch reported in Monrovia, 0.48 in Anaheim, 0.46 in El Toro, 0.43 in Riverside, 0.42 in Montebello and Torrance, and 0.35 in Avalon, San Gabriel and Newport Beach.

As the storm passed toward the southeast, the snow level dropped to about 4,000 feet in the mountains.

Snow fell in the Los Padres National Forest in the northern half of Ventura County. About six inches were reported at Pine Mountain in the Tehachapis, but elsewhere it was not sticking to the roads. Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains had an inch of snow and two to four inches were reported in the Big Bear area. Motorists were advised to carry chains in the mountains.

Slippery roads were blamed for traffic accidents and a fatal crash in southeast Orange County.

On Santa Margarita Parkway, just north of Alicia Parkway, one man was killed and three others seriously injured when the driver lost control and the auto glided into the path of oncoming traffic. No other injuries were reported.

“Whenever it rains, we just brace ourselves for this,” a California Highway Patrol spokesman said Wednesday. “There are, of course, far more accidents than on an average day.”

In San Diego--where more than a quarter inch of rain fell at Lindbergh Field--a car slammed into a transformer box in Scripps Ranch, knocking out power to about 750 homes. Electricity was quickly restored.

The storm was expected to move out of Southern California Wednesday night, leaving partly cloudy skies today, with highs in the low 60s.

Another storm is expected to arrive in the northern part of the state by Friday and bring six to 12 inches of snow to the mountains, McKewon said. But the forecaster saw little chance that Southern California would get much more than cloudiness from the new front.

THE RAIN 24-hour total: 0.34 in.

Storm total: 0.34 in.

Monthly total: 1.17 in.

Total for season: 1.38 in.

Last season to date: 1.52 in.

Normal season to date: 5.35 in.

Figures, based on 4:30 p.m. readings at the Los Angeles Civic Center, are compiled by the National Weather Service, which provides no later data.