Heavy Rain, High Surf Expected on Saturday

As a wet weekend loomed, Orange County got an early drenching Thursday that created a freeway nightmare and raised anxieties about coastal flooding.

Blue skies dotted with white clouds are expected today, but forecasters say more showers will arrive early Saturday afternoon, followed by larger, more sustained rains Monday and Tuesday. Emergency crews will be keeping a close watch for high surf and flooding in some vulnerable coastal areas.

Bulldozers and sandbags were at the ready Thursday in Seal Beach and San Clemente in anticipation of flooding, but no problems developed.

The same could not be said of Orange County’s freeways, where pelting rain brought traffic to a standstill and made cars skid out of control.

“It was a mess out there,” California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Richardson said. His agency handled 255 collisions on Orange County freeways between 6 and 11:30 a.m., compared with 58 during the same hours on Wednesday.

Remarkably, no major injuries were reported, despite several cars sliding off roads into ditches and freeway sound walls.

“The main thing people need to remember is leave themselves room and time,” Richardson said. “It was a bad morning.”

Still, Orange County got off relatively easy; the same cold front that brought between .55 and .68 inches of rain to local cities delivered hours of thunderstorms in Northern California, according to John Sherwin, a meteorologist for WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

The major concern locally was the possibility of high surf in the days to come, stoked by the series of cold fronts, the current lunar phase and the number of Pacific storms this season.

“The storms have churned it up pretty good out there, and combined with the other conditions it could make for flooding threat,” Sherwin said. “With the storms, think of it like a swimming pool full of people. The waves build and build.”

The National Weather Service issued a heavy surf advisory Thursday for the coastline from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, and Sherwin said the surf was expected to build through Saturday.

The Orange County Fire Authority will have two bulldozers on the sand of Seal Beach to shore up the berm that protects beach-side properties, and sandbags are in place in San Clemente to keep waves at bay. In Newport Beach, officials said they hope the weekend flooding threat is less than advertised.

“We got more rain than we expected Thursday, and we didn’t have any problems,” Deputy Fire Marshal Mike Macey said. “We’ll gear up for the worst and see what happens.”

One group keeping an eye on the building waves is the county’s surfers. Red warning flags will be flying today, and lifeguards will offer cautions, but the surf conditions will undoubtedly attract wave-lovers.

“Generally, the experts will be the only ones who will venture in on days like this,” said Lt. Bill Humphries, a marine safety officer in San Clemente. “Everyone else, we tell them to stay out of the water.”

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Storm Warning

A storm approaching from the northwest, along with southwesterly winds, could combine with unusually high tides to cause coastal flooding Saturday. Watch for 10-12 foot waves with swells reaching 18 feet. A look at the storm system:

1. South to southwesterly winds ahead of the storm system will increase as front moves closer, building offshore swells and wave height, especially at south-facing beaches

2. Storm system will move closer to shore by Friday night, possibly causing drizzle

3. Main storm system should hit Saturday, dropping half an inch to 1 inch of rain; system should quickly move through the county

Forecast

Saturday’s storm should resemble Thursday’s in duration and amount. Expect some heavy showers with partially cloudy skies in the afternoon.

Thursday’s Rain

Thursday’s storm dumped more than half an inch in various parts of the county, bringing the season total to more than 10 inches. Spot rainfall totals:

Anaheim: .65

Dana Point: .55

Laguna Beach: .45

Newport Beach: .66

San Juan Capistrano: .58

Santa Ana: .68

Santa Ana Rain Totals

(inches, as of 4 p.m. Thursday)

Season to date 10.33

Normal to date 6.62

Last season to date 14.80

Source: WeatherData, Inc.; Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times