Storm Brings Only Sprinkles to the Southland

A storm that began passing through Los Angeles on Saturday unleashed scattered light showers that slickened freeways, causing a rash of fender-benders, and it threatened to remain through the weekend.

The heavy storm that forecasters feared would drench Southern California, dampening spirits at outdoor fiestas marking Mexico’s liberation from Spain, did not occur.

Just one-hundredth of an inch of rain fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center. Northern California, however, was pounded by a more brutal weather system, with rain and lightning causing widespread power outages.

More than a inch of rain pelted Sacramento, and a sandlot baseball player in the Sonoma County town of Cotati was killed when a bolt of lightning struck him.

In Los Angeles, where a 60% chance of rain was predicted for today, Saturday amounted to little more than a day of overcast skies and intermittent morning showers that chased out the smog.

“It looked quite ominous a couple days ago, but it never materialized,” said Bill Hoffer, a specialist for the National Weather Service. Nevertheless, it was the first precipitation for the area since May 13, when the city got five one-hundredths of an inch rain.

The gloomy weather marked the approach of tropical storm Octave, which was moving north from Mexico. That storm spawned a low-pressure system that resulted in the rain and lightning that lashed much of Northern California.

The tropical storm was within 300 miles of San Diego by Saturday afternoon, but it was steadily losing power. “It looks like Octave is pretty much dissolved,” said Bill Hibbert, a forecaster for WeatherData Inc., which supplies weather information to The Times. “It’s just a little spin of clouds now.”

It was still enough of a spin, however, that the same kind of scattered showers that rolled through on Saturday are expected to return today. They will be accompanied by temperatures in the mid 70s, significantly cooler than the 81-degree high recorded at the Civic Center Saturday.

In Orange County, the high Saturday was 82, in Santa Ana. Slightly cooler temperatures were reported for the beach cities.

Rain caused the usual rash of minor traffic accidents Saturday, police and California Highway Patrol officers said. They described the impact as minimal, however. “It was just enough to clean up the smog and mess up my windshield,” said one CHP sergeant.

Bracing for the worst, Mayor Tom Bradley issued a statement warning surfers, anglers and swimmers to stay out of Santa Monica Bay in the event of major rainfall, as that could cause elevated bacteria levels from street runoff.

In Northern California, meanwhile, a 26-year-old Sebastopol man was struck by lightning at 8:15 a.m. as he was playing baseball with a few friends at a public park in Cotati, about 10 miles south of Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Gary Lee Albritton and the other players fell to the ground when a bright flash and loud bang swept across the playing field in Myrtle Park. Albritton was rushed to Petaluma Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m., said Lynn Von Hoogenstyn, a sheriff’s community services assistant.

Lightning interrupted electrical service to thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in the Santa Cruz area, according to a company spokesman. But the first official ride of the Napa Valley Wine Train departed despite a power failure caused by a lightning strike.

Hibbert said that the Northern California storms were expected to move mostly east instead of south into Southern California, which is the usual course in winter.