Storm Drives Motorists to Distraction

It didn’t seem much like spring in Southern California on Tuesday night, as a wintry Pacific storm frosted cities in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains with hail and snow.

At dusk, snowflakes and hail fell in a number of cities, including Pasadena, La Crescenta and La Canada-Flintridge.

The snow was so heavy on Angeles Forest Highway that during the evening, about 100 cars “spun out,” creating minor traffic accidents, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Richard Major.

“This kind of storm is pretty unusual,” said Bill Hoffer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “When you get snow and hail in Southern California, you know this is a real cold storm. Unlike a lot of storms, this one didn’t dissipate as it moved south.”

And forecasters say you had better get used to it, because there could be more cold, wet weather later this month. And in Southern California, rain means traffic accidents.

The CHP said there were 256 accident calls between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. on the freeways and highways it patrols in Los Angeles County. CHP Officer Lou Aviles said that compares with a normal total of about 85 calls.

One of the worst tie-ups occurred after the rush hour, about 11 a.m., when a big rig jackknifed on the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Sylmar, backing up traffic for several miles.

In Orange County, an overturned big rig triggered a 45-minute delay on the eastbound Riverside Freeway in Anaheim shortly after noon, and an hour later, another jackknifed truck blocked three lanes of traffic on the San Diego Freeway in Costa Mesa. Two lanes were blocked for nearly an hour on the westbound Riverside Freeway in Anaheim after a car smashed into sand barrels on a median barrier.

Guy Pearson, a meteorologist with WeatherData, Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the chilly, damp weather is due to a shift in the high-altitude jet stream winds that funnel storm systems from the Gulf of Alaska into North America.

The dynamics that cause these winds to shift and sometimes split are not fully understood, Pearson said.

“Right now, the stream is split, with the northern part sagging farther south than usual, sending the systems right into Southern California,” he said.

Pearson said that although more wintry weather may lie ahead, the next few days actually look pretty good. Skies should start clearing this morning, with breezy, clear and slightly warmer weather expected the rest of this week and into the weekend.

Times staff writers Patt Morrison in Los Angeles and Jason Kandel in Orange County contributed to this story.