Rains drench parts of valley

Driving into Palm Springs Saturday morning looked a lot like driving into the eye of a storm.

“Feels like in Hawaii before a storm’s about to hit,” said Wade Griffith, who moved to Palm Springs last week from Chicago.

“Kind of that mysterious, gloomy kind of weather,” said Liz Bermudez of Los Angeles.

A light drizzle downtown turned into pockets of heavier rain. Further north, runoff from the mountains barreled down toward Indian Canyon.

Near Big Bear, storms lowered temperatures to the upper 50’s and soaked riders of a 100-mile bike race, the Tour de Big Bear. San Bernardino County Fire Department treated up to 40 people for hypothermia.

And along I-10, slick conditions and low visibility. But it wasn’t enough to dampen people’s mood.

“We love the weather. We anticipated it to be dry and warm. It’s really great,” said Elizabeth Morin of Los Angeles.

“After dealing with minus weather for six months in Chicago, bring it on,” Griffith said.

Adam Willert and his friends are vacationing from Sheffield, England and were surprised to learn this weather made our headlines.

“It’s a little bit weird because it’s like this most days in England,” he said.

But our region has seen record low rainfall for a number of years, and this wet weather is exactly what our parched desert needs.

“Especially in California where we’re undergoing a severe drought this is welcome,” Morin said.

“I would like it to help, I wish it would rain lots,” Bermudez said.