Winter Storm Moves Into the Southland

The first in a series of powerful winter storms is expected to pummel Southern California with thunder, rain, hail and cold, gusty winds this morning as the storm track from the Gulf of Alaska bends south into Southern California.

The prospect of rain and temperatures dipping into the upper 30s and low 40s before dawn prompted officials to open four of the city’s five emergency shelters for the homeless Thursday night for the first time this season.

Rain made streets slippery in parts of Los Angeles on Thursday night and the California Highway Patrol reported heavy snowfall in the mountains of northern Los Angeles County.

Forecasters said about an inch of rain should fall in the coastal valleys of the Los Angeles Basin by tonight, with perhaps twice that much in some foothill communities. Up to six inches of snow is forecast for ski-resort levels in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, and winds up to 20 m.p.h. are expected in some areas.

More rain and snow are expected Sunday and Monday with the arrival of a second wintry weather system heading south along the storm track. Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said a third storm could reach the area by the middle of next week.

Burback said the Pacific storm track, which tends to cut across the northern and middle portions of the state at this time of year, is being bent farther south than usual by a branch of the jet stream, the high-altitude, high-speed winds that flow from west to east in the Northern Hemisphere.

Although this southern bend in the storm track apparently will mean more rain for Southern California over the next week or so, its effect on the state’s six-year drought remains uncertain.

Coastal communities in Northern and Central California got an inch of rain or more from the first storm as it headed south Thursday, but the storm stayed farther offshore than expected, adding little to the High Sierra snowpack, California’s principal source of water.

However, forecasters said they think the storm will head inland across a broad front early this morning, with up to a foot of new snow piling up in the Sierra as rain begins falling across Southern California. Burback said the second and third storms could add substantially to the Sierra snowpack.

Officials in Sacramento announced Tuesday that they had only enough water to deliver about 10% of the amounts requested for next year by the Metropolitan Water District and 28 other agencies served by the State Water Project, which is fed by runoff from the Sierra.

The MWD, which provides a major share of the water used in Southern California, said it had anticipated the cutbacks and expects to get through the coming year without mandatory rationing. The MWD has other resources to draw upon, and voluntary conservation efforts have reduced the demand for water.

As the first storm approached the coast of Southern California Thursday evening, buses began picking up homeless people at 22 stops throughout the city and taking them to armories in Van Nuys and West Los Angeles and two smaller shelters in downtown Los Angeles. A fifth shelter in San Pedro is expected to open tonight.

The shelters, which were expected to accommodate about 1,300 people Thursday night, are opened whenever the chance of rain is 50% or greater and temperatures are predicted to drop below 50 degrees. The shelters will be open every night from Dec. 14 through Feb. 13, regardless of the weather.

The shelters provide beds, hot meals and counseling services.

Forecasters said the first storm should begin moving east out of the Los Angeles area sometime this afternoon, with partly cloudy skies expected tonight and Saturday.

Temperatures will remain chilly, Burback said, with coastal valley highs in the 50s and 60s after overnight lows in the upper 30s and lower 40s.

Rain should begin again Sunday, continuing into Monday, Burback said. He said that although skies should clear on Tuesday, the third storm system could bring rain again by the middle of the week.

The high temperature at the Los Angeles Civic Center on Thursday was 63 degrees, seven degrees below the normal high for the date. The low was 52 on Thursday morning.