Strong winter storm drenches, freezes county

SAN DIEGO - A late-winter storm chilled and soaked the San Diego area today, bringing widespread downpours, stiff winds and heavy mountain snowfall.

The unsettled atmospheric system out of the Pacific Northwest delivered plentiful precipitation across the county through the morning and into the mid- afternoon, when the showers began to dwindle in coastal and inland-valley communities, according to the National Weather Service.

As of 5 p.m., the east-moving dark clouds had dropped anywhere from a few hundredths of an inch to around an inch and a half of rain, the NWS reported.

By then, Otay Mou...