Storm Falls Short of Predictions, but Delivers Winter

Saturday’s rainstorm didn’t pack the wallop predicted, but Southern California skiers and winter resorts--suffering through one of the warmest and driest seasons in years--rejoiced over the first significant snowfall to blanket local mountains.

The predawn downpour also caused minor flooding, scattered power outages and dozens of traffic accidents in Los Angeles County. Some San Fernando Valley residents were left without electrical power for several hours early Saturday, while others braced for possible mudslides.

Several inches of fresh powder were reported in forest towns from Wrightwood to Big Bear, and more is expected in the days ahead as a series of Pacific storms rolls over the region.

“We’re in the game now. This is excellent,” said Darren Moraco of Victorville, who was skiing the freshly covered slopes at Big Bear.

Mountain businesses were hoping for a wave of visitors today, after months of light crowds.

“Finally, the season begins--on Feb. 12,” said Greg Ralph, marketing director at the Bear Mountain ski resort in Big Bear. “Everybody is in a much better mood now in this town.”

Saturday’s storm was far milder than the lightning, thunder and up-to-4-inch drenching that forecasters had anticipated.

The storm dumped 1.26 inches of rain on Pacoima Dam, 0.85 inches on Canoga Park and 0.73 inches on Burbank, said Mike Wofford, a National Weather Service meteorologist. In the Antelope Valley, Lancaster received 0.28 inches and Palmdale only 0.16 inches, he said.

A weather front could drop an additional half an inch of rain early today and this afternoon, with lighter showers Monday from the southern edge of a Northern California storm.

An underground cable failed after it was flooded with rainwater early Saturday, leaving 2,500 Van Nuys residents without power for nearly six hours, said Winifred Yancy, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The power failed about 3 a.m. and was restored by 9 a.m., Yancy said.

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High winds knocked a tree into power lines, leaving about 100 Woodland Hills customers without electricity between 3 and 9 a.m., Yancy said.

In Arcadia, Glendale and La Canada Flintridge, workers remained on alert where rain-soaked hillsides threatened several homes.

Concrete barricades and 6,000 sandbags were placed near 16 Arcadia homes in the path of a potential mudslide. City crews helped save one home on Highland Vista Drive from mud flowing off land where a fire had burned away vegetation in December.

After plastic sheets and sandbags were placed in key areas around hillside homes during the week, 30 employees of the Glendale Public Works Department were on call this weekend for emergencies, said Bill Jeffrey of the department’s maintenance services section.

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To cope with potential flooding of the hillsides, workers on Thursday installed a 12-foot-tall temporary pump near the Glendale Sports Complex in northern Glendale, Jeffrey said.

Almost 2 inches of rain in San Francisco snarled arriving flights, and poor visibility in the Bay Area shut down one of two runways, forcing United Airlines to cancel 31 flights Friday and Saturday. In bad weather, “our arrival rate gets cut in half,” said Dan D’Innocenti, San Francisco International Airport duty manager.

Periodic rain will continue in Los Angeles throughout the week, said meteorologist Wes Etheredge of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“The early part of the [Southern California] winter was incredibly dry,” he said, noting that Pacific storms shifted toward the Northwest as part of a La Nina system.

“We’ve been seeing a sort of decay of that . . . over the past three weeks,” with fronts lining up over Central and Southern California, he said. “It’s just a more typical pattern.”

But there is no telling how long it will last, he added.

In the mountains, they can only hope.

“It’s been a very long winter. . . . We’ve been in T-shirt weather up here,” said Diane Jorgenson, a Wrightwood resident employed at Mountain High ski resort.

Only dustings of snow had been received before Saturday, and ski resorts have been surviving on man-made snow.

Estimates varied from resort to resort, but the Saturday snowfall averaged about 6 inches in local mountains, Etheredge said.

An additional 4 to 8 inches was expected today as snow levels dropped as low as 3,300 feet, he said.

That still is a fraction of the typical season, when 65 inches of snow fall in the San Gabriel Mountains, Etheredge noted.

And spring is fast approaching.

“Better late than never,” said Ralph, the ski resort marketing manager.

Times staff writer Zanto Peabody and correspondent Monte Morin contributed to this story.