Light Saturday Rain Triggers Minor Traffic Accidents

A light rain sprayed most of Orange County early Saturday, leaving streets glistening and contributing to a flurry of minor traffic accidents.

“It was basically a stream of moisture out of the tropics coming in from the southwest in conjunction with a minor upper atmospheric disturbance moving out of the Pacific Ocean,” said Steve Pryor, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which supplies forecasts for The Times. “Most of the significant rainfall now appears to be leaving the area, moving into eastern California and Arizona.”

Pryor predicted a slight chance of more showers Sunday morning, with generally improving conditions throughout the day and lots of sunshine by Sunday afternoon.

“I hate to call anything this small a storm,” he said. “It was quite minor.”

Beginning about 5 a.m. Saturday, the rainfall measured 0.11 inches at Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, compared to only 0.01 inches farther north at Los Angeles International Airport. At the same time, Pryor said, temperatures hovered in the mid-60s--about normal for this time of year--with a mild wind of about 5 m.p.h.

While rainfall is unusual in Southern California in October, the meteorologist said, Saturday’s rain did not constitute what he would call a significant divergence from the norm. “I don’t know that it’s a precursor of anything else to come,” Pryor said. “I don’t think it’s particularly significant in signaling anything out of the ordinary.”

Wayne Lenz, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center in Santa Ana, said that the early morning rain had not caused any significant disruptions in Orange County traffic flow. “Right now, traffic conditions are pretty good,” he said Saturday afternoon.

But Sgt. Mike Fassnacht, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said that slick roads and impaired visibility had resulted in a flurry of minor traffic accidents “all over the freeways” of Orange County.

“We’ve had a few more accidents than for a normal Saturday morning,” Fassnacht said, “but nothing horrendous. There have been only minor injuries.”

By early Saturday afternoon, he said, the situation had returned to being “relatively quiet.”