Clear Skies to Follow Storm, Tornado Alert

A storm system that dropped rain on Orange County and a tornado on Long Beach on Friday will give way to clearing skies this afternoon and Sunday, forecasters said.

The twister that tore the roof off a supermarket never threatened Orange County, although a tornado warning was issued for Los Alamitos, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brandt Maxwell. That area was drenched with about three-quarters of an inch of rain, he said.

The same conditions that created the tornado also unfurled a waterspout about three miles off the coast of Laguna Beach at about 1:30 p.m., he said. But that never reached land and caused no damage.

In spite of its extravagant displays, Friday’s storm system was relatively weak, dropping .56 inches of rain in Anaheim, .26 inches in Santa Ana and .25 inches in San Juan Capistrano, according to WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The front is supposed to move through Orange County this morning, Maxwell said, “and the rain is supposed to taper off to hit-and-miss showers.” Temperatures are expected to range from the low 60s today to the mid-40s tonight.

Another system headed for Southern California may bring light showers Monday or Tuesday, Maxwell said.

Though Friday’s rainfall amounts weren’t impressive, they added to a startling year-to-date total, said Wes Etheredge, a meteorologist for WeatherData. Between July 1 and Friday afternoon, 8.01 inches of rain fell on Orange County, he said. The normal total through Jan. 9 is 4.5 inches, he said.

And the culprit? You get one guess.

Etheredge said El Nino is continually blamed for individual storms. But the true effect of the notorious weather phenomenon is to add more moisture to storms that would have showed up anyway, he said. Hence an individual storm--like Friday’s--may not carry a lot of rain, but the overall totals are vastly increased.

“But as far as generating them or making them more powerful, [El Nino] does not do that,” Etheredge said. “Think of it seasonally, large-scale.”