SAN DIEGO - A departing Pacific storm finished doling out rain and mountain snow to the San Diego area Wednesday before moving on and making way for clearing skies and a warming trend.
The brunt of the unsettled front doused the county Tuesday afternoon and evening, after which scattered showers and diminishing snowfall continued overnight and through the morning, according to the National Weather Service.
"It should be drying out and clearing up pretty much through the next week," NWS meteorologist Tina Stall said.
By early afternoon, the dark clouds were disappearing throughout the county, leaving behind replenished water reservoirs and snowfall piled up to 6 inches deep in some areas and extending from the highest peaks down to about the 3,400-foot level, Stall said.
Over a 24-hour period ending at noon, the storm dropped 1.22 inches of precipitation at Lake Henshaw; 0.99 in Santa Ysabel; 0.55 in La Mesa; 0.51 in Kearny Mesa; 0.39 at Brown Field airport in Otay Mesa; 0.33 in downtown San Diego; and 0.24 in Borrego Springs.
As of Tuesday evening, 4.38 inches of rain had fallen at Lindbergh Field for the year, and 6.78 inches since July 1 -- totals 1.44 and 0.69 inches, respectively, above amounts considered "normal" for those periods, according to the NWS.
Local temperatures are expected to climb over the next several days, and the weekend should be "real nice," with thermometer readings in the 70s across the San Diego region, Stall said.
Flights Delayed
SAN DIEGO - Several flights between San Diego and the blizzard-battered East Coast were canceled or delayed Wednesday.
"We are seeing cancellations from the East Coast and elsewhere," said Airport Authority spokeswoman Katie Jones.
As of 2 p.m., more than a dozen flights that were scheduled to arrive from or depart to East Coast airports from San Diego were canceled, according to the Airport Authority's Web site.
Jones said there were also cancellations or delays for flights scheduled from airports elsewhere in the country as a result of planes stuck at East Coast airports.
The Airport Authority's Web site showed flight cancellations involving several airlines to and from Newark International Airport, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport; Boston's Logan International Airport; and Philadelphia International Airport.
