Sunday’s Rainfall Called a Sign of Things to Come

The light rain that began to fall Sunday night throughout Orange County is expected to continue through tonight, and forecasters say it is only the beginning of what is going to be a very wet week.

Forecasters Sunday said the odds were nearly even that it would rain on Pasadena’s big parade on New Year’s Day.

“It’s kind of iffy now, but it doesn’t look too good,” said Steve Burback of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The National Weather Service put the chance of rain today at 80%, with about a 40% chance of rain on New Year’s Day.

The Tournament of Roses has been remarkably lucky over 103 years of generally splendid New Year’s days.

“Frankly, the parade goes on rain or shine,” said Caryn Eaves, manager of public relations for the parade, which will be broadcast to China this year for the first time, making for a potential viewership of 1.45 billion people. “It has rained nine times,” Eaves said. “The last time was 1955, so we’ve been lucky for a long time, and I’m knocking on wood right now.”

The current rainfall, which originated near the Hawaiian Islands, was swept in from the tropics by heavy winds, said WeaterData’s Burback.

“It’s rather unusual that widespread rains would come from the southwest,” Burback said. “But this is not a tropical storm. It’s light to moderate rain.”

Heavier rain should arrive by Tuesday night, however, when a storm originating in the Gulf of Alaska arrives. This storm, accompanied by winds ranging from 15 to 30 m.p.h., is expected to stick around throughout much of the week.

“Rainfall will be almost a daily occurrence,” Burback said. “It’s a huge storm system that will send a series of impulses down to California. The little storms will come down, affecting Orange County every few hours. It will be mostly cloudy and sunshine will be scarce.”

Santa Ana was the warmest spot in the county Sunday, reaching 71 degrees. Other county areas were considerably cooler, with Anaheim peaking at 63 degrees, Lake Forest at 62, Dana Point at 60 and San Juan Capistrano at 59.

Burback said temperatures should range from the mid-50s to mid-60s today, then dip about 10 degrees when Tuesday’s storm hits.