Rainy-Day Road Wrath

The second storm in as many days dampened Orange County on Tuesday, triggering four SigAlerts and dozens of other accidents, and is expected to give way to sunshine as early as today before another front hits Sunday.

Tuesday’s storm brought slick roads, choppy seas and a cool day in the low 50s. It rained about half an inch in Anaheim and Irvine and contributed to four major accidents on Orange County freeways.

The first occurred just after 10 a.m. after a big rig and sport utility vehicle collided and hit a guardrail on the southbound Orange Freeway north of Imperial Highway. There were no injuries.

Less than an hour later, two big rigs in Anaheim jackknifed on the Riverside Freeway near Gypsum Canyon Road. Eastbound traffic was snarled for about 90 minutes as Caltrans crews and tow trucks cleared the road. At least one person was injured.

In Fullerton, a motorist was injured after his car struck crash barrels about noon on the connector road from the westbound Riverside Freeway to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway. The connector lanes were closed for two hours as crews removed the car and cleaned up sand from the barrels.

The CHP issued its final SigAlert of the day just before 4 p.m. when a trash truck stalled in the slow lane of the eastbound Riverside Freeway, just west of Euclid Street in Anaheim.

Between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., the CHP received reports of 80 crashes, said Officer Mike Richardson.

“This is pretty typical for a rainy day,” he said. “People need to give themselves more time to get to work in the morning, and the bottom line is people need to slow down.”

Twenty-two schoolchildren got a scare Tuesday afternoon when a car hit their Laguna Beach Unified School District bus on Pacific Coast Highway north of Vista del Sol in Laguna Beach. No one was injured.

Tuesday’s cold-air storm came from the north, lurched south along the coast and fizzled in the skies above Los Angeles. Snow levels were at 4,000 feet Tuesday, with overnight levels down to 3,000 feet.

The outgoing storm will give the Southland a break from rain until Sunday, when another unrelated front is expected to hit. Skies will be clearing today, and breezy temperatures will hit the low to upper 60s.

Warmer temperatures are expected Thursday and Friday, into the middle to upper 70s. Clouds will begin to form Saturday with temperatures dropping into the middle 60s and low 70s.

Normally, winter storms bring big waves, but Tuesday’s wind-whipped waves petered out at one to two feet, said Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Steve Davidson.

“These aren’t ideal conditions for surfing,” he said. “And there are very few boats out. It’s just a quiet day. But if you want to stay warm here, get in the water.” The water temperature was 56 degrees, compared to the air at 54.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol, which roams the waters off Dana Point, Newport Beach and Huntington Harbor, reported an uneventful day Tuesday, said Sgt. Karl Von Voigt.

“Everybody’s basically behaving themselves today.”