About 55,000 Southern California subscribers to The New York Times did not receive their papers this morning as the torrential rains disrupted the satellite transmission carrying the Monday edition from New York to its local printer.

Toby Usnik, a spokesman for The New York Times, said L.A. area storms were to blame and that interruptions of the transmission were very rare.

“Representatives from the satellite firm are on site in California today assessing the damage,” he said. “The Monday papers for home delivery in the L.A. market will be with the Tuesday paper. Many but not all retail outlets will receive the paper today.”

Art Wible, publisher of the Daily Breeze in Torrance, which prints the Times circulated in Southern California and Las Vegas, said transmission of the Monday edition was diverted to the paper’s Northern California printer.

“They were able to transmit to another Northern California printing facility,” he said. “They made negatives and flew them down yesterday evening. Normally we’d print in the late afternoon before the Breeze is printed. Now we printed it after.”

Both Usnik and Wible said the problems had nothing to do with the Times’ planned shift to Southwest Offset Printers Inc. The change was to take effect Jan. 1, but has not been implemented yet. The Breeze continues to print the Times while Southwest conducts test runs.