COUNTYWIDE : 1-Day Respite Seen From Wet Weather

By AJOWA IFATEYO

March 4, 1992 12 AM PT

A slow-moving storm finally left the county, but not before dumping more than two inches of rain in one location.

While clear skies are predicted for today, more rain is expected late tonight and Thursday.

The storm “was really slow to pull out, but it put in some pretty good rains before it moved on,” said Mark Bogner, meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts to The Times.

San Juan Capistrano got a “good soaking,” 2.43 inches of rain, making it the county’s high, he said; Santa Ana received the county’s low of 1.06 inches, bringing the year-to-date rain total in that city to 10.64. This is about four inches more than last year’s total by this time.

Irvine got a total rainfall of 1.86 inches, and Laguna Beach got 1.32 inches.

The heaviest rain in the Southland on Tuesday was reported in foothill communities, but there was relatively little of the flooding that plagued Southern California during this season’s heavy downpours.

The storm “moved to the Plains and caused tornadoes and hail and all kinds of stuff in Texas,” Bogner said.

Today’s weather is expected to be warmer with cloudy skies and light winds under 15 m.p.h. “It’ll be a pretty nice Wednesday on tap,” Bogner said. “Thursday looks like it will be another rainy, cloudy and showering day. It will be the shower variety as opposed to the heavy, steady rain.”

Forecasters do not expect any heavy rain until at least the middle of next week.

“It should all be pretty well gone by Friday morning,” Bogner said. “After that there should be a really beautiful weekend.”

Snow is expected above 6,000 feet in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

Storm Totals

For past two days, as of 8 a.m. Tuesday; cities marked with an asterisk (*) indicate inches as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

City & Inches

Anaheim: 1.14

Brea: 0.98

Corona del Mar: 1.34

Costa Mesa: 0.94

Cypress: 0.83

Fullerton: 0.94