Laguna Canyon Road to Reopen This Morning if Weather Permits

Laguna Canyon Road is expected to reopen for northbound commuters this morning, barring new flooding from the latest storm.

A five-mile stretch of Laguna Canyon Road, between the San Diego Freeway and El Toro Road, was opened from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol reported.

And provided that it does not rain this morning, one lane of Laguna Canyon Road will be opened to northbound commuters between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. the CHP and Laguna Beach Police said.

Traffic today will open only in one direction, police said.

But if meteorologists’ predictions for up to a half an inch of rain this morning come true, Caltrans officials said they will close the major South County artery once again.

On Tuesday, the county closed Aliso Creek Bike Trail, Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park and Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park for at least a week.

The Aliso Creek Bike Trail, the county’s second most-traveled bicycle path, is closed between Moulton Parkway and Aliso Creek Road in Aliso Viejo. Although the trail has not caved in from flooding in Aliso Creek, county officials say recent erosion has put it in danger of collapse.

Meteorologists said a storm off the Central California coast is headed south and could dump up to three inches of rain on Orange County today and Thursday.

The storm “does have the potential to knock out two or three inches (of rain). It’s a very similar storm” to the one that pounded Orange County over the weekend, said Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“But whether it stays that way is something we have to keep an eye on,” Dittmann said, because it may lose some of its punch as it spins south.

Dittmann said highs in Orange County today will range from the 60s to lows in the low 50s.