MOTHER NATURE GIVES FORECASTERS SNOW JOB.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Marathoners, mariners and outdoor mavens of every stripe girded for the deluge last weekend when forecasters issued a severe winter storm warning.

Whoops.

As Saturday's storm held back its buckets, frustrated forecasters eyeing Monday's pending flood shook pointers at Mother Nature.

``The storm stalled out,'' Fritz Coleman, weather seer for KNBC-TV (Channel 4), said prior to going on the air Monday afternoon. `'It's Mother Nature, it's an act of God, what can I say?

``Public humiliation is not easy.''

The low-pressure zone blamed for this week's storm confounded forecasters by hanging offshore all weekend before making its assault on Southern California.

The official, if mercurial forecast, is rain through today with a return of wet weather Friday through Sunday. But even seasoned weather specialists say seeing is believing.

``It snowed everybody,'' said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. ``For the L.A. area, we were off by 48 hours; for the Santa Barbara area, 20 hours off. It failed to pick up steam as predicted. It's got a lot of forecasters frustrated.''

The deep low-pressure area that had drifted from the Pacific Northwest by way of San Francisco lay 500 miles west of Los Angeles before making its move, weather experts said.

Nonetheless, while forecasters could predict weather on a daily basis with 80 percent accuracy 20 years ago, they're now able to dial in the weather at the same consistency five days in advance.

But while offshore ``inside sliders'' often prove difficult to predict, Monday's onshore system, despite numerous satellite images, proved just as difficult for forecasters.

And for sailors and fisherman as well.

Oscar Flores of Blueweather Sailing in Marina del Rey said weekend forecasts blew away any prospect of weekend charters.

``Most people don't want to go sailing when it's rainy,'' he said. `'Unfortunately, people trust the weather guy.''

Joe Hreha, 49, of Simi Valley saw the weather report and decided to ``accelerate'' his fishing trip planned for Saturday by revving up his 200 horsepower Basscat on Friday for a trip to Castaic Lake.

``You go out there, rain or shine,'' joked Hreha, who caught his limit Friday. ``That's why they invented Gortex.''

United Airlines and Southwest Airlines officials both said weather is so important to good flying that the companies have each hired their own meteorologists.

``It's always a craps shoot,'' said United's Southern California spokesman Alan Wayne during an in-flight telephone interview through light rain.

Airport officials at Los Angeles International Airport reported 44 United flights impacted by wet weather.

``We always say in Texas, If you want the weather to change, just wait five minutes,'' said Southwest spokeswoman Kristin Nelson from her office at Love Field in Dallas.

``Weather is very important to an airline - we need to be nimble, to be able to change our plans rapidly,'' she said.

Dallas Raines, a 16-year meteorologist and news forecaster for KABC-TV (Channel 7), said a lack of data makes Pacific weather so difficult to forecast.

Whereas satellites supply some information, there simply aren't enough weather balloons floating in the atmosphere 70,000 feet overhead to create an accurate weather model, he said.

The result: Flubbed forecasts and egg on faces.

``There are times when it happens and you have to grin and bear it,'' Raines said. ``But the good part is, my son plays baseball, and he was able to play Saturday even though the forecast was in error.''