By John C. Toman. Posted February 19, 2012, 4:39 PM.

A cold winter storm left the first significant rain totals for February this past Wednesday in Southern California.

The third storm of the week was clearly the strongest, with rain totals between a quarter of an inch to an inch in the inland valleys.

Simi Valley, to the west, had the weakest total, with 0.09" for the storm.

The main swath of showers appeared to run through the middle of Riverside County in the afternoon and evening hours Wednesday. Menifee recorded the most rainfall (1.00"), a surprise, since it is usually one of the driest areas in Western Riverside county.

Other high totals nearby were in Perris (0.74"), East San Jacinto (0.70", courtesy of Monty Parrott), Hemet (0.64") and Beaumont / Cherry Valley (0.63").

It was the strongest storm since December 12th in what has been a fairly dry rain season to date. The low snow levels left a fresh coat of snow on the region's mountain ranges, down under the 4,000 foot level. According to the National Weather Service, Idyllwild, east of the most affected valley communities, had 14" of fresh snow.

Down south, De Luz recorded 0.72". Most of the rest of Southwest Riverside County was between 0.43" (East Murrieta) and 0.60" (Northwest Murrieta).

Rain totals dropped off north of Perris and south of Temecula (0.55").

In San Diego County, Fallbrook registered 0.25" and 0.39" fell in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood.

As of Sunday, no new significant storm was in sight, although there was some chance of system coming through the last weekend of February.

Here are the rain totals for the WeatherCurrents network and associates:

Southern California snowfall from space (courtesy of National Weather Service)