Sprinkles of Surprise : Umbrellas Pop Up at Events--From Air Expo to Dodger Stadium

Rare summer squalls doused much of Southern California on Sunday, soaking beach-goers and baseball fans alike with an unseasonal, although manageable, drizzle and leaving some roads dangerously slick.

Forecasters said the rainy weather will probably continue today and Tuesday, but predicted any showers would be light. Still, Sunday’s rainfall threatened to shatter the day’s precipitation record for Los Angeles, .04 inches, set in 1914.

Scattered showers were reported from Chatsworth to San Bernardino, and lightning storms momentarily cut off electricity to about 15,000 homes in Orange County. Rain also made for slippery driving conditions in Downtown Los Angeles, contributing to a six-car crash on a transition road between the San Bernardino and Santa Ana freeways. No injuries were reported.

In the San Fernando Valley, motorcycle traffic police headed back to the station for reassignment in patrol cars or were warned before their shifts of a change in plans.

“We’ll be pairing up those guys and sending them out in cars to investigate accidents,” said Sgt. Mike Melancon, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division. “The very instance it starts to rain, we have more accidents.”

But in spite of oil-slicked roadways that have gone a long time since they were washed down with a good rain, accidents were few and minor, according to the California Highway Patrol and the LAPD.

At the annual Van Nuys Airport Aviation Expo, parachutists had to jump a few hundred feet lower than planned because of the heavy cloud cover, and spectators took shelter under canopies and the wings of parked airplanes.

“In July, who would have thought they’d be used for the rain?” said event spokeswoman Diane Scully.

Many of the estimated 125,000 who attended the expo said they preferred the rain--the first in the event’s 27-year history, organizers said--to the usual sweltering Valley heat.

“The last few times it’s been too hot,” said Rhonda Maroney of Granada Hills, as she and her family took shelter from the sprinkle under the wings of a parked bomber.

In Lake View Terrace, ominous skies and forecasts of rain didn’t discourage an estimated 40,000 people from venturing outside for a Latino music festival at Hansen Dam Recreation Area.

Late Saturday night, northern Los Angeles County residents were treated to lightning and thunder in addition to drizzle.

“The night show was beautiful,” said Sgt. Bruce Sonnenblick of the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station. “We had a bunch of lightning. It was very cool--the sky was lit up.”

Los Angeles County Department of Health Services officials warned beach-goers that the rain could increase bacterial levels in the ocean and directed swimmers to avoid water near storm drains.

In the official language of weather, the strange storm and rain are the result of “an upper level disturbance with convective showers,” said Curtis Brach, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The weather pattern is normal for July and August over parts of the Southwest, especially the desert, Brach noted, where a high pressure area sets up and then kicks off the “monsoonal” season, pulling up moisture from northern Baja California and the Pacific Ocean, and dumping it in the desert and Arizona.

This time the system “just drifted westward,” Brach said. “This is fairly unusual.”

Of course, the wet weather dampening Southern California was far less troublesome than the killer heat wave scorching the East Coast and the Midwest, where about 100 people have died from heat-related conditions.

At Dodger Stadium, many in the smallish afternoon crowd wore typical T-shirts, shorts and sunglasses--while carrying highly unusual umbrellas.

“It’s pretty bizarre--I’m a native Californian so it’s hard to believe,” said Bob Gifford, 38, a management consultant, who was in a Forrest Gump “Stupid Is as Stupid Does” shirt.

Even if he had wanted to stay away, Gifford said, he couldn’t have because he had promised his 5-year-old son Paul that they would go to the ballgame.

“He wanted to come no matter what,” Gifford said. “And at that age, when you make them a promise, they don’t forget.”

With a light drizzle falling as the game was about to start, Alex Fitch, 10, was garbed in a different sort of rain gear: He wore his black leather baseball glove on his head.

“I hate the rain,” said Fitch, adding that he nonetheless loved the Dodgers.

Times staff writers Michael G. Wagner, Abigail Goldman and Nicholas Riccardi and correspondent Frank Manning contributed to this story.