Storms Headed for Southland

A powerful Pacific storm that generated four small but destructive funnel clouds in Sonoma County moved south into the Los Angeles area late Wednesday, bringing the promise of off-and-on rain showers for the next five days or so.

Forecasters said that up to an inch of rain should fall in the coastal valleys, with twice that much in some of the higher foothill communities, before the first in a series of cold, unstable weather systems moves out to the east on Friday. Up to a foot of snow is expected at some of the ski resorts in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

Another storm system from the Gulf of Alaska is expected to invade the Southland on Saturday and Sunday.

Rain forecast for today will come from the same system that swept through Northern California on Wednesday.

Sonoma County’s Office of Emergency Services said one funnel cloud knocked over trees and shattered windows at a home near the Sonoma County Airport, while another ripped part of the roof from a house on the outskirts of Sebastopol.

A third funnel cloud damaged some greenhouses northwest of Sebastopol and a fourth touched down on farmland north of town.