Light Rain, Cold Temperatures Expected Tonight

A little light rain is expected tonight and Friday morning, but not enough to put much of a dent in what is shaping up as another dry La Nina year.

Amy Talmadge, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said a cool upper level disturbance is expected to drop up to a quarter of an inch of rain in the valleys--with about twice that much in foothill communities--before the storm system moves out Friday afternoon.

She said showers should start falling on the western San Fernando Valley after nightfall tonight, spreading across the rest of the Los Angeles Basin by dawn Friday. The snow level in nearby mountains will dip to near 4,000 feet at daybreak.

Frigid air sweeping down from Alaska behind the weather system should keep temperatures cooler than normal through the weekend, with highs edging barely into the mid-50s and low 60s after overnight lows near freezing in some of the coldest areas in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

The Civic Center rainfall total for the meteorological season--which runs from July 1 through June 30--currently stands at 0.44 of an inch, less than one-fifth of the normal total for the date of 2.46 inches.

Experts like Talmage aren’t surprised. They say we’re currently in the second year of a continuing La Nina, the meteorological counterpoint to the drenching El Nino during the winter of 1997-98.

The Civic Center precipitation total during the El Nino season of 1997-98 was 31.03 inches--the third highest on record. The total during last year’s La Nina was just 9.09 inches--far from the lowest but still 6 inches below the normal season’s total of 15.09 inches.

The rains follow winds that gusted to 65 mph and raked the Los Angeles area early Wednesday, knocking down trees and power lines as cool temperatures invaded the region in advance of a late-week rainstorm.

In Van Nuys, a parked car was found beneath portions of a 40-foot eucalyptus tree knocked down by gusty winds Tuesday night.