Storm Could Be Start of a Series

The first rain of 1996 to fall on a parched Southland triggered a rash of rush-hour traffic accidents Tuesday and might have been the first of a trio of storms.

Showers were expected to end early today, but forecasters said a second storm could arrive late Friday, with a third due late Sunday or early Monday.

“None of them will bring real heavy rain to Southern California, but they could bring light to moderate precipitation, and that’s a change,” said Rob Kaczmarek, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information for The Times.

Traffic was tied up during the evening rush-hour as vehicles spun out of control on rain-slicked streets.

Two crashes in Anaheim involving big rigs on the Riverside Freeway frustrated commuters but caused no serious injuries, California Highway Patrol officers said. About 3:40 p.m., an 18-wheeler overturned and spilled hay on the freeway, forcing the shutdown of all lanes for about two hours, authorities said.

Less than 30 minutes later, another truck jackknifed on the same freeway west of the Costa Mesa Freeway and tied up traffic for almost an hour, CHP officers said. Several motorists skidded into one another as they tried to avoid the big rig.

In a third accident involving a big rig, a truck skidded out of control on the San Gabriel Freeway in the city of Industry, leaving the cab dangling over a bridge railing. Again, no one was injured.

The rain also contributed to snarled traffic on the San Diego Freeway and elsewhere, traffic officers said.

“The storm got here a little quicker than we thought,” Kaczmarek said.

As of noon Tuesday, only 1.47 inches of rain had fallen in Orange County since the meteorology season began on July 1, compared with a norm of 5.24 inches. Last year, 12.69 inches of rain were recorded during the same period, Kaczmarek said.

“We have a different type of weather pattern this year,” he said.

Partly cloudy skies are expected today, with temperatures reaching the mid-60s and dipping to the low 50s, according to WeatherData.

Because of conservation measures, careful planning by water officials and much heavier precipitation in the northern half of the state, from which Southern California gets much of its drinking and irrigation water, reservoirs are so full that no one is worried about a drought, at least not yet.

But Southland farmers, ski resort operators and lovers of inclement weather have been wondering why, in what is usually one of Southern California’s wettest months, it’s been so sunny here lately. The last time it rained was a few days before Christmas, more than three weeks ago.

Kaczmarek said the dry weather has been caused by some persistent ridges of high pressure that stretched across Central California, Nevada and Utah, blocking the normal southward flow of wet storm systems from the Gulf of Alaska. Detouring north around the high-pressure ridges, these storms contributed to the miserable weather in the East.

Finally, toward the end of last weekend, the high-pressure ridges began breaking down. High-altitude jet-stream winds started swinging south toward Los Angeles, and by Tuesday afternoon, the southern edge of a fairly substantial storm started dropping light rain on Southern California.

The storm track is expected to remain where it is for a week or more, so at least two more storms could reach the Southland. Like the storm that arrived here Tuesday, both are fairly substantial but are expected to concentrate most of their power on the northern half of the state.

Wind-driven rain pelted Northern California on Tuesday, downing power lines and snarling traffic. Heavy snow fell in the High Sierra, with as much as two feet expected at the Lake Tahoe ski resorts.