Coachella Valley Sunny While Southern California Dodges Rain

Partly cloudy skies shrouded much of Riverside County today, as a swift-moving storm dropped less than a tenth of an inch of rain across the region.

The California Highway Patrol reported seven non-injury crashes between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. today, particularly on Interstate 15 and the Riverside (91) Freeway.

Minor amounts of rainfall were recorded, averaging .05 inches in most places, according to the National Weather Service in San Diego. The heaviest rainfall, recorded at .08 inches, was measured in Moreno Valley and at March Air Field in Riverside, said Tina Stall of the NWS in San Diego.

Other rainfall totals included .04 inches in Beaumont, .05 inches in Temecula and .05 inches in San Jacinto. Zero rainfall was recorded at Palm Springs, Stall said.

”Most of the rain fell between 7 and 9 a.m.,” Stall said. ”It was really fast-moving through the Inland Empire, so it didn’t have time to flood any places.”

Yet it was enough to cause some minor crashes due to wet pavement, including a white GMC truck that slid off Interstate 15 just north of Ontario Avenue in Corona, according to the CHP. The driver was found sitting on top of his truck in the flood channel, a CHP dispatcher said.

Forecast highs today and chances of rain in Riverside County varied. In Riverside the rain chance was 70 percent with a high temperature around 65. Further east in the windy San Gorgonio Pass, Beaumont had a 50 percent chance of rain with a high of 56.

The possibility of rain was higher in the San Jacinto Mountains. Idyllwild also had a 50 percent rain chance and a forecast high in the low 50s.

For Palm Springs today, the forecast mentioned no rain chance and declared the outlook “partly sunny” with a high around 70.