STORMS DUMP SNOWFLAKES ON SKI AREAS.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand and Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writers

Scattered showers and thunderstorms cleared out of the Southland Wednesday afternoon, revealing mountains laced with enough snow to keep some ski areas open longer than they had planned.

``Things are really looking up,'' said Chris Riddle, marketing director at Snow Summit Mountain Resort at Big Bear Lake. ``We're sitting here with midwinter conditions in April. It's the best snow conditions of the season so far.''

The latest storm, which drove snow levels to 3,500 feet and lower in some areas, brought about 6 inches of new powder to Snow Summit.

Mountain High in Wrightwood, located to the west of Big Bear, got even more snow.

``We've had 14 inches in the last 24 hours,'' bringing the ski area's base depth to almost 30 inches, Mountain High's Margie Walters said Wednesday.

With the drier-than-normal La Nina weather pattern starving resorts of snow this year, both ski areas considered closing after this weekend but will now stay open until at least April 18.

``After that, it's day to day,'' Walters said.

The snow, sleet, hail and heavy rain of recent days comes courtesy of the latest in a series of frigid storms to come spinning out of the Gulf of Alaska and down the California coast, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hoffer.

The instability of these systems was evident over Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County where several funnel clouds were spotted below thunderstorms, he said.

The cold air accompanying the storm set a record Wednesday at the Los Angeles Civic Center where the daytime high hit only 55 degrees - 16 degrees below normal. That was two degrees less than the previous record of 57 degrees set in 1975, he said.

Highs in the mid-50s were reported throughout the Los Angeles Basin, with overnight lows dipping to about 45 degrees in most areas.

Factoring in the rain that came late Tuesday, weather officials said Chatsworth set a new record for that date with 0.70 inch of rain, compared with 0.63 inch set in 1986. Pasadena also broke its old record Tuesday with a total of 0.86 inch, Hoffer said.

On Wednesday, a half-inch of rain fell in Van Nuys; Chatsworth reported 0.35 inch; Lancaster, 0.13 inch and Thousand Oaks, 0.14 inch.

The Civic Center received 0.39 inch of rain Wednesday, bringing the season-to-date total to 6.69 inches, which compares with 13.89 inches in a normal year by this time and 27.27 inches during last year's El Nino.

The Southland could get even more rain in coming days as two more storms are expected.

Thursday should be dominated by partly cloudy conditions, with winds hitting 20 mph to 30 mph and highs into the low 60s. In the evening, a 40 percent chance of rain arrives with the next storm, Hoffer said.

Early Friday morning will have a 20 percent chance of showers, giving way to cloudy skies and highs in the 50s.

Saturday should be similar but highs could edge into the low 70s.

Then on Sunday, more showers are possible from yet another Gulf of Alaska storm.

``Mother Nature's got 'em lined up out there,'' Hoffer said.

The wet weather Wednesday contributed to a doubling in the number of traffic accidents on Los Angeles County freeways during Wednesday's morning commute, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP fielded 127 crash reports between 5 and 9 a.m. Wednesday, compared with 63 such calls a week earlier, which was a day without rain.

In one of the most serious crashes, a Canoga Park man's car went out of control in Palmdale early Wednesday on an icy bridge, slammed head-on into another car and burst into flames. So did the other car.

Firefighters rescued James Hendrickson, 40, of Canoga Park and Maria Cortez, 41, of Palmdale from the burning autos. Pamla Mason, 49, of Littlerock, who was driving the car in which Cortez was a passenger, was injured but got out of the car by herself.

``If we had gotten there two minutes later, I imagine they would have expired in the cars from the heat and the smoke. I have no doubt,'' Firefighter Sean Fox said after the 3:20 a.m. collision on Pearblossom Highway east of Sierra Highway.

The highway was wet and icy, though it wasn't raining or snowing at the time, officials said. Bridges are the first place where ice forms because the absence of earth beneath makes them cool off faster than adjoining pavement.

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2 photos

PHOTO (1) Eastbound cars speed along the Ventura Freeway in Studio City on Wednesday as blue sky emerges from behind clouds.

John McCoy/Daily News

(2) Artemia Rodriguez strolls along Sherman Way in Reseda on Wednesday with Isabel and in the stroller, Leti, during the aftermath of a brief storm that broke daily rainfall records.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News