Rain May Put Shadow on Spectacular Eclipse : Weather: Storms not only force closure of road leading to Santiago Peak, one of O.C.’s best viewing sites, but also cause traffic to back up on freeways.

The storms battering the county may break long enough for a stunning view of the solar eclipse at dusk today, but the road leading to one of the county’s best viewing sites will be closed.

The heavy rains of the past 10 days forced the U.S. Forest Service on Friday to close the end of Silverado Canyon Road leading to Santiago Peak in the Cleveland National Forest.

The road will probably remain impassable through next week as a relentless series of storms is expected to soak the county, according to Steve Burback, meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times.

The closure dampened the hopes of hundreds of Orange County stargazers who had planned to drive four-wheel vehicles to the 5,687-foot summit to view the “ring of fire” eclipse later today.

“We’ve had so much rain that there’s absolutely no question about closing the road,” U.S. Forest Supervisor Anne Fege said. “It’s mostly out of concern for the public, but it’s also to protect the road.”

The rain could trigger landslides and endanger anyone on the single-lane, winding dirt road, officials said.

“It’s going to be an absolute mess with everyone going up there,” Fege added. “It’s just too wet, slippery and steep.”

Fege said officials were advising the hundreds of people who had called to inquire about the condition of Silverado Canyon Road to view the eclipse from Palomar Observatory in San Diego County instead.

In this eclipse, called an annular eclipse, the moon will cover the center of the sun, creating a “ring of fire” on the horizon. Bluffs and high points in South County offer the best vantage point over Catalina Island and longer viewing of the ring. The initial phase of the eclipse as the moon begins to pass in front of the sun will begin at 3:33 p.m., but its most striking phase will last only about five minutes beginning at 4:50 p.m. until the sun disappears behind the island.

Eye protection is necessary when watching a solar eclipse and can be bought at some liquor stores.

Burback said stargazers will still be able to catch “decent scenes of the eclipse.”

“We’re expecting a few scattered clouds, but it’s looking pretty decent” for the eclipse, Burback said.

The celestial event will be sandwiched between two storm systems, the first of which snarled rush-hour traffic Friday afternoon and into the evening.

“We had a lot of accidents out there,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Rick Pena. “But it is difficult to tell what can be attributed to the weather.”

A trailer rig that overturned on the San Diego Freeway near Westminster tied up midafternoon traffic in both directions for about an hour, Pena said. That was followed by the chase of a murder suspect that ended just off the southbound San Diego Freeway at the Golden West Street off-ramp, also in Westminster. That scene caused southbound traffic to back up to the Garden Grove Freeway well into the evening.

Annular Eclipse Southern California will be treated to its second solar eclipse in six months today when the sun slides down behind the moon just before sunset. This will be an annular eclipse-quite different from the partial eclipse last July 11-because the moon will cover only the center of the sun, creating a “ring of fire”over the Pacific Ocean. The annular eclipse will be visible from Malibu to Ensenada, but the sun will be so low on the horizon that only those with a clear view to the west will see it.