Rain, High Winds Buffet Southland

Northern California warmed up Saturday from a storm that dumped rain, hail and so much snow that it buried the record downfall that trapped a passenger train for four days in the 1950s.

But the reprieve from the kind of weather that closed main highways linking California and Nevada and caused power outages for 20,000 customers Friday could be short, the National Weather Service said.

In Southern California, high winds drove cold showers through the area Saturday morning, as a quarter of an inch of rain fell at lower elevations and mountains above 4,000 feet were coated with snow.

Winds whipped at 25 to 35 m.p.h. over most of the area with gusts up to 40 m.p.h. A wind advisory was in effect on highways, small-craft warnings were issued for inner waters off the coast and gale warnings were posted for outer waters.

Despite a dramatic rescue attempt by the Coast Guard, a woman died after she fell from a sailboat into the high, windblown seas off San Pedro.

A Coast Guard helicopter lowered a rescue swimmer to snatch the woman from the nine-foot swells nine miles offshore about 12:30 p.m. Rescuers attempted to resuscitate the victim, who was not identified, but she was pronounced dead an hour later at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital.

In Vernon, a funnel-shaped “mini-twister” ripped tar paper and skylights from roofs of commercial buildings, sending the material spinning into the air, according to police and fire officials.

Fire Department Battalion Chief Gary Wiskus said a startled police officer and civilian saw what looked like a little cyclone strike just after midnight.

“They could see the material whirling around inside the twister and they could hear a loud roaring noise,” he said. There were no injuries.

In Palm Springs, winds gusted as high as 50 m.p.h., and on a hole of the Skins Game golf tournament, a wind-aided drive by Fred Couples soared 430 yards in the air.

Winds were expected to drop to 10 to 20 m.p.h. today with clear skies and high temperatures in the 60s, according to the National Weather Service.

In Northern California, Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada was open in both directions Saturday as the storm eased, Caltrans said, but chains were required for some stretches. The highway was closed at Donner Pass on Friday when heavy snow and winds gusting to 100 m.p.h. created whiteout conditions.

At the 7,000-foot level and a mile west of Donner Summit, the snowpack at the little town of Norden reached 72 inches, beating the 66 inches that fell in 1951, according to KCBS meteorologist Mike Pechner. The winter storm that lasted into 1952 nearly entombed the Southern Pacific Railroad’s sleek City of San Francisco in a slide at Yuba Gap.

The new storm snapped tree limbs that became laden with snow, felling them on power lines, said Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Lyle LaFaver. “We have about 20,000 people without service in an area from Eureka to Santa Cruz,” he said Saturday.

But the storm was good news for skiers.

“Conditions couldn’t be better,” said Sheila Walsh, spokeswoman at Boreal Ridge on Donner Summit. “It’s sunny and brisk.”

Relatively mild weather should last until Thursday, weather officials said.