Rain, Humidity Cast a Cloud on Southland Image

John and Yvonne Verheul came from Holland equipped with everything they needed to be tourists in Southern California: sandals, short shorts and shirts in neon pink.

Everything, that is, except an umbrella. “We didn’t expect this,” Yvonne Verheul said as the pair walked through downtown Los Angeles during a light shower Monday.

Intermittent showers, leaden skies and muggy air continued to erode the sunny image of Southern California.

Lifeguards estimated that only 800 sun seekers were at Malibu’s Zuma Beach by midafternoon, about a third of the normal crowd. “They’re just sitting on their towels,” Lifeguard Lt. James Richards said.

“It is unusual, especially for August,” Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said of the current conditions. WeatherData Inc. provides weather forecasts to The Times.

Burback blamed it all on a tropical storm named Hilda, reported about 350 miles southwest of San Diego and moving north.

“Hilda has spread moisture into Southern California and will continue to do so for the next day to day and a half,” Burback said.

Along with heavy clouds and unseasonably warm nights, Hilda has also brought higher levels of humidity, Burback added. “Humidity levels are now in the 50% range during the afternoons and quite a bit higher at night, 85% at least,” he said.

Burback noted that daytime temperatures also were warmer than normal. The downtown high in Los Angeles on Monday was 92.

Trace amounts of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles, as well as at Los Angeles International Airport and in Santa Monica, Long Beach, Riverside and Big Bear, according to National Weather Service measurements. Thunder and lightning storms struck the eastern Mojave Desert.

The Weather Service issued flash-flood warnings for various mountain and desert areas earlier Monday, but canceled them when expected storms did not materialize, spokeswoman Pat Rowe said.

With clouds shrouding the area, the meteor light show expected to streak through the northeastern sky this week has been blocked from view. The annual August event, visible when the Earth intersects debris left in space from a comet known as Swift-Tuttle, should last another two nights, said Griffith Observatory guide Morgan Harmon.

Metropolitan residents will find the meteors hard to see. “With city lights which bleach the sky, clouds and condensation, it’s not possible to see anything,” Harmon said.