THE WEATHER: Cloudburst

A gift of nature of which expansive Southern California does not boast is floods. After a 227-day drought ending with December temperatures above 90°, a polar air mass collided with a wave of damp tropical air, condensed it in seven days of cloudburst. The precipitation, 7.26 in., made the wettest early December since 1889, reminded frightened Los Angelenos of their disastrous floods last March (11 in. in five days). Casualty: a ten-year-old boy fell and was knocked unconscious, drowned in a puddle. Wisecrack: Radio Comedian Bob Hope complained that he had been arrested for going through a traffic light before the tide turned.