Storm Puts Freeway Traffic on Hold : Weather: L.A. gets nearly two inches of rain. Two stronger systems are expected to hit state within days.

Heavy rain drenched Southern California on Friday morning, triggering a monumental tangle of commuter traffic jams across the Los Angeles Basin that included 1 1/2 hours of gridlock on the Hollywood Freeway.

Almost two inches of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center, with more than twice that much in the mountains above Pasadena, before the two-day storm began moving out to the east Friday afternoon.

Forecasters predicted some sunshine by this fternoon, but they said two potentially stronger storms are expected Sunday and next Wednesday as a wet-weather cycle continues.

Friday’s storm, born in the sub-tropical Pacific just north of the Hawaiian Islands, was too warm to drop any snow below the 6,500-foot level in Southern California, but that suited travelers and ski enthusiasts perfectly.

All the major mountain highways remained open, with no chains required, but ski resorts, which are generally above 7,000 feet, got between six and eight inches of wet, fluffy snow.

While mountain roads were clear, the freeways were nothing but trouble.

“I got in at 5:30 a.m., and from then on, every one of the freeways had problems,” said California Highway Patrolman Glen Dominguez. “The visibility was bad, and the pavement was very slick. . . . Our officers were rolling from accident to accident to accident. It was a difficult day to be a highway patrolman.”

The gridlock on the Hollywood Freeway formed about 8 a.m. as steady rain slowed traffic to a crawl, and finally to a dead stop. Traffic backed up for 13 miles, from the four-level interchange downtown to well past the Ventura Freeway junction in North Hollywood.

The Hollywood Freeway finally began to open up about 10:30 a.m., but that led to a 10-car pileup near Barham Boulevard that again slowed everything down.

Technically, the Pasadena Freeway was not gridlocked during the morning rush-hour, because traffic was stop-and-go. But the drive from downtown Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles still took some motorists more than an hour.

The Ventura Freeway wasn’t much better, after the rain backed up a storm drain and flooded a couple of lanes near Winnetka Avenue.

In Orange County, traffic on the Artesia Freeway slowed to a halt Friday morning when a tractor-trailer rig skidded out of control on the wet pavement and jackknifed, spilling diesel fuel across the roadway.

A short time later on the Orange Freeway, rain stalled a van, backing up southbound traffic for several miles.

In fact, cars were stalled all over the place on Friday morning, largely because of shorted electrical systems. The Automobile Club of Southern California said calls for emergency service during the storm were up by more than a third over a comparable period last week.

Roxanne Pugh, who handles the phones for an envelope-manufacturing company in Glendale, said most of the business’ salespeople are native Californians, so they took the storm-bred freeway chaos in stride.

“They’re used to the idea that it will take them forever in this kind of weather,” Pugh said. “They called from their car phones and they said, ‘Well, it’s like a parking lot out here, but at least I can make my calls.’ For them, it was business as usual.”

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a Wichita-based firm that provides forecasts for The Times, said the storm that moved out Friday evening was the first in a series of at least three due in by the middle of next week.

The total rainfall at the Los Angeles Civic Center during the 24 hours ending at 4 p.m. Friday was 1.31 inches. That raised the total from the storm to 1.88 inches and the total for the season to 7.43 inches, still 1 1/2 inches below the normal season’s total for the date.

Other 24-hour totals included Mt. Wilson, 3.63 inches; Pasadena, 2.06; Glendale, 1.92; Redondo Beach, 1.15; Santa Monica, 0.93; Santa Ana, 0.83; Anaheim, 0.65; San Bernardino, 0.27, and Riverside, 0.11.

Burback said skies should be partially sunny, after some morning fog near the coast, for much of today, but a second storm, expected Sunday, promises to boost the season’s total to above normal.

“That next one looks like it’s got quite a bit of rain, maybe as much as three inches in some parts of Southern California,” Burback said.

More important, he said, the second storm will move farther to the north, adding as much as a foot of snow to the Sierra snowpack. The runoff from the snowpack is California’s principal source of water during the long, dry summer, and state officials say it will take lots more snow in the Sierra to put a significant dent in California’s prolonged drought.

Burback said the second storm, which should linger here for at least two days, will also be cooler than the first one, with the snow level in Southern California dipping as low as 5,000 feet.

Southland Rain Watch L.A. BASIN REGION: Avalon/Catalina 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES:.65 REGION: Culver City 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .95 REGION: Long Beach 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .66 REGION: L.A. Civic Center 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.31 REGION: L.A. Int’l. Airport 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .70 REGION: Montebello 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: NA REGION: Santa Monica 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .93 REGION: Torrance 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .75 REGION: UCLA 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.91 VALLEYS/CANYONS REGION: Beaumont 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .87 REGION: Monrovia 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.28 REGION: Northridge 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: NA REGION: Pasadena 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 2.06 REGION: San Gabriel 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.50 REGION: Santa Clarita 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.69 REGION: Woodland Hills 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.25 ORANGE COUNTY REGION: Anaheim 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .65 REGION: Newport Beach 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .65 REGION: Santa Ana 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .83 SAN DIEGO REGION: Oceanside 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .84 REGION: San Diego 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .54 MOUNTAINS REGION: Big Bear Lake 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .14 REGION: Mt. Wilson 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 3.63 DESERTS REGION: Victorville 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: Trace REGION: Palm Springs 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: 1.00 SANTA BARBARA/VENTURA REGION: Santa Barbara 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .37 REGION: Ventura 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .53 SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY REGION: Bakersfield 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION*IN INCHES: .10 * Measured over a 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Friday. NA indicates not available. SOURCE: National Weather Service and WeatherData Inc. Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers