It's been nearly six weeks, but autumn seems to have finally gotten its footing.
A cool storm doused the San Diego area with intermittent downpours Tuesday and buffeted the region with high winds, ending a lingering spate of summer-like heat and humidity.
By late afternoon, the bands of dark clouds had dropped upwards of three- quarters of an inch of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service.
One location, Alpine, tallied a record one-fifth of an inch, exceeding the prior Nov. 3 milestone of 0.11 of an inch, the NWS reported.
Overnight, peak gusts on Boucher Hill and Volcan Mountain reached 60 mph, meteorologists said.
The unsettled atmospheric system, which began moving over the county on Monday, pushed high temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below seasonal norms along the coast and in the inland valleys, and as much as 20 degrees lower than average in the mountains, according to the weather service. No local snowfall was recorded, however.
As of 4:15 p.m., 24-hour rainfall totals included 0.75 in Pine Hills; 0.74 in the Palomar area; 0.64 in Julian and at Lake Cuyamaca; 0.52 on the north side of Mount Laguna; 0.43 in Santa Ysabel; 0.42 in Descanso; 0.41 on Otay Mountain; 0.28 at Henshaw Dam; 0.21 in Del Mar and Escondido; 0.2 in Alpine and Ramona; 0.19 in Rancho Bernardo; 0.17 in Oceanside; 0.14 in Lakeside; 0.13 in Harbison Canyon, Mission Valley, downtown San Diego and San Marcos; 0.12 in Lemon Grove and northern Santee; 0.1 in El Cajon; 0.08 in Linda Vista and Serra Mesa; 0.07 in Carlsbad and Poway; 0.04 in Fallbrook and San Ysidro; 0.03 in Encinitas, Kearny Mesa and Ranchita; and 0.01 in Point Loma and Warner Springs.
The showers likely will continue through Wednesday evening, forecasters said. Another warming trend will begin Thursday and continue into the weekend, according to the weather service.
