Storms Deliver a Ray of Hope to Parched State

Rain fell on broad regions of the state Wednesday and snow piled up in the Sierra Nevada from the latest in a series of storms that has nourished lowered reservoirs, delighted skiers and raised cautious hope that maybe--just maybe--the impact this summer of five dry years might not be as severe as was feared just two weeks ago.

As a measure of the improving outlook, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Wednesday removed a proposal from its board of commissioners’ agenda for today to increase mandatory water rationing in May to 25%, from 15%. The decision to delay stricter rationing levels stemmed from a fresh review of anticipated water supplies.

“I guess they’re taking a wait-and-see approach,” DWP spokesman Ed Freudenburg said. “The weather has provided some additional water.”

State water officials cautioned that it will take a long time for California’s reservoirs, rivers and wells to recover from a long drought, and they insisted that it is virtually certain that mandatory rationing will be needed to ensure adequate supplies this year.

Still, they conceded the situation had improved over two weeks ago, when water suppliers were envisioning that state residents would have to conserve by as much as half their normal usage.

Since late February a series of storms have crossed the state, dumping nearly four inches of rain on the Los Angeles Civic Center and the San Francisco Bay area and three feet of snow or more in the northern and central Sierra Nevada, one of the main sources of the state’s water supply.

More precipitation is expected later this week and into next as the jet stream shunts cold fronts out of the Gulf of Alaska into California on a normal rainy-season course.

“We’ve gone from terrible, to bad, to poor,” said Bill Helms, spokesman for the State Drought Center in Sacramento. “ . . . It will take years of normal rain to ease the drought and replenish water supplies.”

Despite Helms’ gloomy assessment of drought statistics--ranging from water storage capacity to the water content of fallen snow--the sound of rain and the sight of fat, gray clouds passing overhead brightened the day for Southern Californians on Wednesday.

The first of a predicted series of storms moved into the area Wednesday, bringing rain--heavy at times--to the Southland.

The cold front lowered the snow level to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in the local mountains. Four to eight inches of snow was expected by today.

Meteorologist Dan Bowman of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, predicted more wet weather here on Friday, Sunday and perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

“That’s certainly encouraging,” Bowman said.

He cautioned, however, that the predicted storms are not likely to carry “exorbitant” amounts of moisture, because they are coming out of the cold northwest, rather than striking in from the Pacific, from which they might carry deep, thick burdens of tropical moisture.

Despite efforts to find clouds with silver linings--and a lot of rain, the dry State Drought Center statistics lent a sense of urgency to Helms’ warning Wednesday that “time is running out.”

Helms sees no hope of a repeat of the weather pattern of 1986, when California was well on its way to a drought year until a series of heavy storms over 10 days in February filled the reservoirs and ended the threat. He estimated that the odds of a repeat of that remarkable event would be “1 in 1,000,” because, traditionally, late March, April and May “don’t have the potential to do that.”

Snow was still falling in the Sierra, as low as the 1,500-foot level, as Helm spoke Wednesday, however. Seventeen inches of new snow fell at Alpine Meadows, leaving more than 5 1/2 feet on the ground, while Echo Summit reported a foot of new snow.

“The storms of last week have made an enormous change,” Pete Bansen said from Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe. “We’ve seen the 180-degree reversal we’ve been anticipating.”

Mammoth Mountain in the eastern Sierra reported an additional foot of snow Wednesday on a 5- to 7-foot base.

It was the measurement of water content of snow at Mammoth Pass that led the DWP to delay consideration of more severe rationing plans, according to Jerry Gewe, water resources planning engineer for the department. He reported Wednesday that the water content measured slightly more than 50% of average.

Rainfall from Wednesday’s storm ranged from 0.08 of an inch at the Los Angeles Civic Center by late afternoon to 0.83 on Mt. Wilson. Elsewhere, Monrovia recorded 0.46, Pasadena 0.33, San Gabriel and Montebello 0.29, Big Bear Lake 0.28, Avalon 0.25, Newhall and San Bernardino 0.24, Woodland Hills 0.20 and Newport Beach 0.17.

The high temperature in downtown Los Angeles reached 60 degrees.

Times staff writer Frederick M. Muir contributed to this story.

THE RAIN 24-hour total: 0.08 in. Storm total: 0.08 in. Monthly total: 0.67 in. Total for season: 5.37 in. Last season to date: 5.60 in. Normal season to date: 12.18 in.

Figures, based on 3 p.m. readings at the Los Angeles Civic Center, are compiled by the National Weather Service, which provided no later data.