Severe thunderstorm warning extended in Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES — Heavy rain struck the Southland this moing.

What appeared to be the main band of precipitation from a new storm reached the Los Angeles Basin after 6 a.m. Precipitation was expected at least until early afteoon, National Weather Service forecasters said.

The NWS waed the storm will have cold air behind it, an instability factor that could trigger scattered heavy rain and thunderstorms.

This moing’s first significant rainfall, coinciding with thunderclaps, caused minor flooding at some intersections, prompting motorists to gingerly drive around areas where water had pooled.

A severe thunderstorm waing was extended through 7:45 a.m. for northweste Los Angeles County, the NWS reported.

Several travelers took to social media Monday moing to report a power outage at LAX just after 6 a.m.

“All lights are out at LAX System is down. Loud Lightning,” a woman calling herself Mayra Palestino posted to Twitter.

Initial media reports indicate that lightning may have struck some transformers.

Doppler radar showed a severe thunderstorm capable of producing winds in excess of 70 mph.

The storm was moving east from weste Ventura County through weste Los Angeles County at a speed of 45 mph.

Heavy snow could fall down to the 5,000-foot level today, and snow could fall on major freeway passes at The Grapevine and Cajon Pass tonight and Tuesday moing, according to forecasters.

There was good news from the City of Los Angeles’ watershed in the headwaters of the Owens River near Bishop. An estimated two feet of snow fell Sunday at Mammoth Lake, above the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

The rain from an earlier storm ending before dawn Sunday was heavy and constant in the Santa Monica Mountains. A fire station in Malibu Canyon got 2.71 inches of rain oveight, and the Malibu Civic Center got 1.3 inches.

Bel Air saw 1.65 inches, 1.22 inches fell at Century City and 1.57 inches dropped on Sherman Oaks. Los Angeles firefighters activated swift-water rescue crews to evacuate a cluster of homeless people from the flood plain upstream of the Sepulveda Basin dam, but police did not close roadways.

The official downtown rain gauge at USC got .73 inches, Santa Ana saw .29 inches, and .48 fell at Villa Park in northeaste Orange County. Rainfall amounts in the San Gabriel Mountains were less than near the coast: 1.5 inches at Santa Anita Canyon.

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The Califoia Highway Patrol handled 150 collisions between 10 p.m. Saturday and 4 a.m. Sunday as the first of two storms left behind rain- slickened streets throughout the Southland. That’s compared with 65 collisions during the same time frame last weekend, the CHP said.

Drier weather was expected Tuesday, but significant rain could arrive by Friday, the NWS said.

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