Storms Raising Hopes Along With Reservoirs : Drought: Recent rains may lessen the effects this summer of five straight dry years across the 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.

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 that the situation has 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 4 inches of rain in coastal areas and three feet or more of snow 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.

Although showers fell on most of Orange County, they left less than half an inch of rain in most spots. Unlike the storms of two weeks ago that caused severe flooding, the closure of Ortega Highway and scores of traffic accidents, Wednesday’s rain merely slowed freeway traffic and caused a handful of minor accidents, authorities said. One accident did force the closure of the eastbound Riverside Freeway for a while, the California Highway Patrol said, but no details were available.

The cold front lowered the snow level to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in the local mountains. Four to 8 inches of snow was expected by today.

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

“By the end of the week, Southern California will get some pretty good rain,” McKewon said.

He cautioned, however, that the predicted storms are not likely to carry large 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.

McKewon offered a bit of hope, however.

“These storms are fast-movers,” McKewon said. “They won’t be the kinds that bring 2 and 3 inches of rain like the ones we got at the end of February, but they’re definitely coming and there will be steady showers as the systems move through (Orange) County.”

Despite efforts to find clouds with silver linings, the State Drought Center statistics lent a sense of urgency to spokesman 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.

Snow was still falling in the Sierra, as low as the 1,500-foot level, as Helms 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.

Metropolitan Water District spokesman Bob Gomperz said Wednesday that the latest rains have helped build up two crucial water stores--the Lake Oroville and San Luis reservoirs--which belong to the State Water Project and supply more than half of Southern California’s imported water.

“We still have quite a bit of catching up to do,” Gomperz cautioned. “We cannot, at this point, say (the storms) are going to have any impact.”

Rainfall from Wednesday’s storm ranged from .16 of an inch in Brea by late afternoon to .71 on Santiago Peak.

Elsewhere, Yorba Linda recorded 0.28, Cypress 0.16, Villa Park 0.24, Huntington Beach 0.31, Irvine 0.24, Mission Viejo 0.31, San Juan Capistrano 0.35 and El Toro 0.16.

Times staff writers Elaine Woo and Frederick M. Muir contributed to this story.

THE RAIN 24-hour total: 0.24 inches Storm total: 0.24 inches Monthly total: 2.61 inches Total for season: 7.14 inches Last season to date: 7.53 inches Normal season to date: 10.19 inches

Figures are for the city of Santa Ana, based on 9:30 p.m. readings. Figures are compiled by WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.