After Rain and Hail, It’s the Calm Between the Storms

The weekend’s powerful storm departed early Monday, leaving mostly clear skies, scattered showers and temperatures in the low 60s across Orange County.

While most cities received no additional rain, Santa Ana and Fullerton reported .06 and .04 inches, respectively.

“Looks like it was real hit or miss,” said Stacey Johnstone, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Reports of snow on the Garden Grove Freeway about 2:30 a.m. Monday turned out to be incorrect--it was hail, officials said. Still, it made the pavement slippery enough that several cars slid off the road, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said. About 30 minutes later, a man was killed on the southbound Santa Ana Freeway in Santa Ana when his Mercedes-Benz spun out of control in the rain and was broadsided by a truck.

Arnold Hosking, 31, of Dana Point was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP spokesman Mark Reeves said. However, Reeves said, “we’re not showing very many accidents at all. It’s been like a regular day.”

The storm, which originated in the Gulf of Alaska, was unusually cold for this time of year.

“This is more of a wintertime storm, rather than a March storm,” said weather specialist Stewart Seto of the National Weather Service.

Snow was recorded Monday morning down to the 1,500-foot level, Seto said. Mt. Wilson recorded 8 inches of snow, and an inch of snow fell in Palmdale.

Orange County’s rainfall over the weekend and early Monday brought the season’s total in Santa Ana to 7.57 inches, lower than the season average for this date of 9.7 inches but higher than last year’s rainfall to date, which was just 4.87 inches.

The county’s waterlogged lawns are expected to get a respite today, Johnstone said, when the forecast is for patchy early morning fog giving way to partly cloudy skies with a light breeze and a slight chance of showers. “But really,” she said, “I don’t think it will be any problem.”

Another storm system is expected to arrive Wednesday and to be “pretty wet” through Thursday, Johnstone said.

“It won’t be as strong as the last system,” she said, “but you might find a thunderstorm here and there, especially on Thursday.”

Friday and Saturday, she said, “should be OK, a little warmer and dry.”

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Winter At Last

Snow levels in the San Gabriel Mountains have dropped to lower-than-normal elevations. A look at snow levels for this winter compared to an average year:

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Month This year Average Dec. 7000’ 4000’ Jan. 5000’ 2000’ Feb. 4000’ 4000’ March 2000’ 5000’

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Source: Meteorologist Ed Clark, National Weather Service