Storm brings rain, thunder, hail to Southern California

LOS ANGELES — A late-season blast of winter dropped rain and mountain snow Monday on drought-stricken Southern California on the heels of a storm that brought downpours, thunder and hail over the weekend.

The first storm continued to shower inland areas as it diminished and moved east, the National Weather Service said. Scattered flood warnings and winter weather advisories were in place through the afternoon as another cold low-pressure system moved in from offshore.

Three to 6 inches of snow was expected above 5,000 feet, and drivers were warned of poor visibility and treacherous traveling conditions at elevation. Some schools were closed in San Bernardino County mountain communities because of heavy snow.

Clearing skies were predicted for Tuesday, and temperatures were expected to hit the 70s and 80s later in the week.

Despite the wet weather, the storms were not expected to put a dent in the state's drought, entering its fourth year.

"We need several large, heavy rainstorms to even have an effect," said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the weather service's Oxnard office.

Heavy rain fell on Los Angeles early Monday, where a freeway south of downtown was briefly closed because of flooding.

The hardest rain the day before came in Ventura County, where it fell at a rate of over 2 inches per hour at one point, the weather service said.

Crews cleared a mudslide that shut down a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway near Point Mugu State Park, allowing it to reopen Monday.

Hail fell on Venice, and plane pilots reported seeing funnel clouds over the ocean about 25 miles off Redondo Beach.

Along California's central coast, heavy rain, pea-size hail and lightning struck San Luis Obispo.

To the north, the Sierra Nevada received a welcome dose of snow. Squaw Valley ski resort "was the big winner" from the storms, with 32 inches by late Sunday, said forecaster Scott McGuire with the weather service office in Reno, Nevada.

But the snow fell mainly around Lake Tahoe and nudged up the mountain range's overall snowpack by only 1 percent, McGuire said. Sierra snowpack, which in a normal year provides much of the state's year-round water supply, so far stands at just 25 percent of the usual total for this time.

The storms brought "drips and drizzles" to the San Francisco Bay Area, weather service forecaster Diana Henderson said.