Storm May Bring Season’s First Significant Rainfall

A strengthening Pacific storm is expected to bring the first significant rainfall of the season to Southern California this weekend.

Forecasters said it will be partly cloudy this morning before the cool, blustery storm begins moving onshore this afternoon.

Light sprinkles should start falling in San Luis Obispo County before sunset. The precipitation is expected to move into Santa Barbara and Ventura counties by midnight, with rain beginning in Los Angeles before dawn Sunday.

Guy Pearson, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a firm that provides forecasts for The Times, said that between a tenth and a quarter of an inch of rain should fall on the Civic Center--with as much as an inch in some foothill communities--before showers taper off Sunday night.

“It’ll be kind of breezy and cool,” he said. “There could be some gusts as high as 25 mph in some areas, and the high temperatures Sunday in the Los Angeles Basin will only be in the upper 50s and low 60s.”

Monday is expected to be partly cloudy and breezy, with high temperatures still on the cool side, mostly in the mid- to upper 60s. Highs in the basin at this time of year usually are in the mid-70s.

The snow level will be high--9,000 feet or above--as the storm moves in, but it could drop to 5,000 feet in some areas Sunday night, forecasters said. Significant amounts could accumulate at some resort areas of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains above 6,500 feet, the National Weather Service said.

Through Friday, the only measurable rain that had fallen on downtown Los Angeles this season was 0.01 of an inch recorded Sept. 4.

The normal total through Nov. 6 is 1.14 inches. The season runs from July 1 through June 30.