Spring Rains Arrive Right on Schedule : Weather: One storm moves in on Southland with another right behind. Sunday looks like only dry day in next several.

Spring will get off to a wet and windy start today as a blustery Pacific storm moves inland over Southern California, and forecasters say a second storm should bring more rain and snow early next week.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the first storm could drop two inches of rain today in Orange County, with up to twice that much in some foothill and mountain communities. He said the freezing level will be fairly high, above 6,000 feet, with about eight inches of snow falling at mountain resort levels.

Strong rain at sunrise should taper off to scattered showers by this afternoon, with showers continuing Saturday, Burback said.

Sunday should be dry and partly cloudy, but a second storm, due late Monday or early Tuesday, should be as strong as the first, and somewhat cooler, Burback said. Although rainfall amounts should be about the same, up to a foot of snow is expected above 5,000 feet.

Burback said the first storm, which originated over the northern Pacific, “built into quite an intense system, several hundred miles across,” as it moved slowly south and east before reaching the Southern California coast late Thursday night.

He said most of the precipitation from this system should fall this morning, with rainfall tapering off to scattered showers and heavy thunderstorms tonight and Saturday morning. Southeast winds will gust to 20 m.p.h. as the storm moves through the Southland, the National Weather Service said.

There will be partial clearing, with increasing cloudiness Monday, Burback said.

“That’s when we’ll see another strong-looking storm, one that’s moving faster,” he said. “We should get some pretty good rain and snow, and even some hail, from that one.”

High temperatures in Orange County will be in the mid-60s today and Saturday, warming slightly to the low 70s on Sunday and Monday, forecasters said. They said top readings will dip back into the 60s with the arrival of the main force of the second storm Tuesday.

The high temperature Thursday in Santa Ana, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point and Irvine was 70. Total rainfall for the season stood at 11.49 inches in Santa Ana, 0.84 of an inch above normal.

The Vernal Equinox

Spring began today at precisely 12:48 a.m. with the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox and its autumnal counterpart occur when the sun is directly over the Equator and represent the point at which day and night are of nearly equal length. The word comes from the Latin word meaning equal night.

Source: World Book Encyclopedia