Southern California winter weather leads to accidents and ski resort crowds

Winter storms that barreled through Los Angeles caused a spate of traffic accidents, but crystal-clear skies and fresh snow enticed crowds of skiers to Southern California mountain resorts over the President’s Day holiday weekend.

Nearly 1 1/2 inches of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday through early Sunday, causing flooding that briefly closed portions of the 110 Freeway and other roads. But no mudslides were reported in foothill communities burned during the 2009 Station fire.

Snow dusted the Grapevine and parts of the High Desert, where the Antelope Valley Freeway was closed briefly near Palmdale. The California Highway Patrol recorded more than double the number of traffic accidents compared with other weekends. A motorist died early Sunday when his pickup collided with another truck on Interstate 5 near Pyramid Lake. It was unclear if weather played a role in the crash, according to the CHP.

Most mountain passes remained open, although chains were required and roads to ski areas were congested.

The biggest storm of the new year dumped up to 2 feet of snow, a welcome event for resorts that had suffered through an unusually warm January.

“We’ve seen a renewed interest in skiing and snowboarding, and the crowds have definitely picked up because of the weather we’ve experienced,” said Kim Hermon, marketing manager at Mountain High in Wrightwood, which was a brisk 29 degrees under sunny skies.

Combined with previous accumulations, the weekend snow will see most resorts through the season, which typically ends in early to mid-April, Hermon and other resort managers said.

“This whole year has been sort of a roller coaster,” said Chris Riddle, marketing director for Big Bear Mountain Resorts, which includes Snow Summit and Bear Mountain. “But with the rains coming through the city, everyone can look up at the mountains and see the white mantle of snow. It definitely puts people back into the winter frame of mind.”

The National Weather Service is forecasting daytime highs Monday in the low 60s and overnight lows in the mid-40s, with partly cloudy skies through Thursday and a 20% chance of rain by Friday.

“We had a good storm in December, but for January and February across Los Angeles, we’re about 4 to 5 inches lower in rain totals than normal; so this winter storm was much needed,” said Stuart Seto, a specialist with the National Weather Service.

carla.rivera@latimes.com