Still Cool but Clearer Weather Expected

So much for an early spring.

After more than a week of glorious warm weather that peaked at 90 degrees inland, a weekend winter storm brought temperatures crashing back down to the usual February chill.

“It’s very typical for this time of year,” said Jamie Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s office in Oxnard. “Our memories are quick to forget. Once we get warm weather people say, ‘What’s this? It’s unseasonably cold,’ but it’s seasonably cold.”

The forecast for today calls for partly cloudy skies, with high temperatures in the 50s to lower 60s and lows Tuesday morning in the 30s and 40s. Frost was expected in some areas.

But the weather service said it will start warming up later this week, with highs in the 60s to low 70s by the weekend.

As of Sunday night, rainfall totals for the most recent series of storms, which began Friday around 10 a.m., were about 1 inch at Santa Barbara Airport, 0.8 of an inch at Leo Carrillo State Park, 0.55 of an inch at Los Angeles International Airport and 0.49 of an inch in Burbank.

On the plus side, those who weren’t getting soaked experienced clear blue skies as the storm moved east Sunday. The clean air is expected to last through today, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Winter sports enthusiasts were also rewarded, with up to 10 inches of snow at Mt. Baldy and Mountain High. Snow was reported as low as 3,300 feet in the Antelope Valley on Sunday, and weather spotters living along the coast in San Luis Obispo County were surprised to get up to an inch of powder at the beach.

The shifting temperatures also created freak weather at sea, where cold winds brushing warmer water led to waterspouts.

Yearly rainfall totals for downtown Los Angeles from July 1 were measured at slightly more than 5 inches, nearly half the normal 9.5 inches and a fraction of the 26 inches that fell last year.

Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this report.