Late Summer Storm Snarls Traffic, Drops Snow on Mountains

Signaling the end of summer, a storm system unleashed a confusing mixture of rain, chilly temperatures and even snow Tuesday on Southern California, causing brief power outages and traffic jams before clearing with hints of warmer days to follow.

The intense early morning rainfall, measured by the National Weather Service at 0.27 inches, broke the record for the most amount of precipitation for the date. The previous high, 0.16 inches, was set Sept. 19, 1963.

Rainfall amounts around the Southland ranged from 0.84 of an inch atop Mt. Wilson to 0.72 in Pasadena, 0.40 in Monrovia, 0.35 in Woodland Hills, 0.34 in Long Beach and 0.14 in Santa Monica.

If the extremes of weather made it seem as though the region was in the grip of some new season entirely, experts said the pattern is consistent with the transition from summer into fall.

Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the storm system grew out of an upper-level low off the coast and would be replaced by sunnier skies and 70-degree temperatures today.

“We would describe this as an early autumnal event,” Dittmann said. “It’s unusual only because it’s so early.”

The explanation mattered little to motorists whose cars or trucks were damaged, residents who lost power and vendors at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, who not only went without customers but were forced to mop water out of ruined pianos, computer equipment and grandfather clocks.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Bob Furst, a fair vendor who watched glumly as water poured out over the keys of his ruined black grand piano, valued at $28,500.

Rain turned freeways into oil slicks, causing several major tie-ups and dozens of minor accidents.

California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Jill Angel said that at one point during the morning, officers had to respond to more than 30 accidents--three times the usual workload.

“It was murder,” she said.

A double-tanker truck flipped at the height of the morning rush hour on the slippery Orange Freeway in Anaheim, spilling more than 2,000 gallons of jet fuel. Several nearby businesses were evacuated, and traffic froze for miles in both directions.

Crews from the county’s hazardous materials team worked into the afternoon to clean up the fuel and right the truck, shutting down the northbound lanes of the freeway and prompting authorities to divert traffic onto surface streets.

A 12-car accident was reported on the southbound Santa Ana Freeway near the San Gabriel River Freeway, closing the fast lane. Flooding forced Caltrans workers to shut down lanes for a time on several area highways, including the westbound Santa Monica Freeway.

Many drivers found their commuting time almost doubled.

Brian Gallagher, an engineering associate with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said downtown traffic was snarled an hour later than usual.

“At least traffic signals were working downtown,” he said.

That was not the case elsewhere in Los Angeles, where power outages blacked out many signals, adding to the traffic woes.

Residents from the San Fernando Valley to northern Orange County reported power outages lasting from a few seconds to three hours, according to utility company officials.

More than 6,000 customers were briefly without electricity in Westside, South-Central and Valley areas, said Ed Freudenberg, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Most regained service quickly, but in some cases power did not return until after 10 a.m.

The blackouts started between 5 and 5:30 a.m., Freudenberg said, in neighborhoods in Brentwood, Harbor City and Century City. At the same time, power went down in the Van Nuys area in the vicinity of Burbank and Fulton avenues.

More than 61,000 customers of Southern California Edison also lost power. Hardest hit were Seal Beach and surrounding northern Orange County communities, including most of Leisure World, said Edison spokesman Kevin Kelly. Hawthorne and parts of Long Beach, Lennox and Lancaster also were briefly without power, Kelly said.

At the fair in Pomona, the heavy rain poured into two recently renovated display halls through leaking drain spouts. One vendor found an expensive grandfather clock filled with water.

Jean McCullough, owner of the New You, a booth that offers computerized alterations of photo portraits, lost 45 computer disks.

“Fortunately,” she said, “our most expensive equipment was up off the floor, but we lost all our disks and tapes.”

Sid Robinson, a fair spokesman, promised that fair officials will “definitely work something out” with vendors for ruined wares and equipment.

Poor weather in recent days has diminished the fair’s attendance. Only 299,957 came for the first five days this year, compared to 356,508 in the same period last year.

Even after the rain stopped, the site remained nearly deserted, its most impressive sight the snow-capped tip of Cucamonga Peak visible from the booths.

Snow fell fitfully in the region’s higher elevations Monday, dusting the upper reaches of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

“We had a little bit, but nothing stuck for very long,” a Wrightwood firefighter said.

The forecast called for mostly sunny and warmer weather today, with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s. Tuesday’s Civic Center high reached 71.

Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Mary Lou Fulton in Orange County and Bob Pool in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

THE RAIN 24-hour total: 0.27 in. Storm total: 0.27 in. Monthly total: 0.35 in. Total for season: 0.35 in. Last season to date: 0.05 in. Normal season to date: 0.31 in. Figures, based on 4 p.m. readings Tuesday at the Los Angeles Civic Center, are compiled by the National Weather Service, which provides no later data.