Look! Up in the Sky! Is It Rain?

After more than two months without rain, Southern California finally got some. Not a lot, but enough to be measured.

A low-pressure system over northern Mexico spun off a few scattered sprinkles across Southern California on Friday. Something a bit heavier than dew fell in parts of Orange County, registering 0.01-inch in Mission Viejo.

Eric Edge, a meteorologist at Weather Central, said there is a chance of light showers again Monday, with the possibility of more substantial rain toward the end of next week.

The last rain worthy of the name fell in Orange County on Oct. 27, dumping 3 inches on parts of Orange County, flooding homes, streets and highways and collapsing part of the roof at Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park.

Runoff flooded about 100 low-lying homes and businesses in Seal Beach, a problem made worse by the failure of a drainage pump that apparently short-circuited and caught fire.

The last time measurable rain fell on Los Angeles was two days later, when 0.53-inch was collected in the city’s official rain gauge at USC, raising the total for the season--which runs from July 1 through June 30--to 1.20 inches.

That’s less than one-fourth of the normal season’s total by Jan. 5 of 5.24 inches, but it’s considerably more than the 0.84-inch that Los Angeles had at this point last year.

Last year was the first since 1962 during which no measurable rain fell in November and December. November is often a fairly dry month in Southern California, but December is usually one of the wettest. In fact, the rainiest month since record-keeping began in 1877 was December 1889, when 15.80 inches of precipitation fell on Los Angeles.

Unexpected sprinkles began dampening streets in Los Angeles shortly before nightfall Friday. Heavier rain was reported in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Edge said a large low-pressure storm system from the northern Pacific should reach Southern California by Monday morning. Although the air over the Southland is so dry that most of the rain will evaporate before it hits the ground, he said, there still is a chance of measurable precipitation Monday afternoon.

Dry weather is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, but Edge said a more powerful Pacific storm system is expected to reach the coast by the end of next week.

Although that system has the potential to dump substantial rain on Southern California, he said, it is still too early to predict the track that the storm will follow and how much rain it will bring.

Despite the arid start, forecasters say Southern California still could have a fairly normal rainfall season. Last year, which began even drier, ended with about three-quarters of the normal total for the season.