The flooded week in Southern California is not over yet, and it rains before a cold, dry weekend on Friday.
The final rain of the week is expected to be 1/1/1 inch of rain along the coast and valleys. Further north, the total rainfall is slightly higher in Santa Barbara County, ranging from 0.5 to 1 inch.
“It’s going to be more than just light rain, but not more,” said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
But don’t just wear those umbrellas yet. Light rain could potentially fall on parts of Southland on Monday, with most of the moisture facing north of Point Conception, according to the National Weather Service. The remains of atmospheric rivers struck Northern California this weekend will bring cold and windy conditions to the southern part of the state before things start to dry out again, according to weather department forecasts.
Rain that arrived in the area on Friday morning is expected to last longer in the late afternoon or into the evening. It also supplies several more inches of snow along the Grapevine section of the 5 Expressway, increasing the hefty accumulation of fresh powder that fell into the mountains of the area this week.
Until 5am on Saturday, mountains in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties have been in effect, warnings of heavy snow and winds that will charge up to 50 miles.
A series of Atmospheric Rivers that hit the area this week provided considerable water supply.
In Los Angeles County, Cogswell Dam received 3.82 inches of rain over three days. Beverly Hills received 1.29 inches and downtown Los Angeles received 1.22 inches. In the San Fernando Valley, the storm dumped 2.28 inches at Woodland Hills and 1.60 inches at La Canarda Flintridge.
Hollywood Burbank Airport received 0.94 inches in the last three days compared to 0.93 inches in 1986, bringing its total previous rainfall record to 100 inches. Long Beach Airport saw a 0.65 inch rainfall, breaking the 0.53 inch record in 1998.
Lancaster Foxfield set record rainfall of 0.52 inches, breaking previous records of 0.40 inches set in 2020.
Thursday’s storm brought wild weather, causing tornadoes and floods in Pico Rivera, but not as strong as the February system that caused landslides along the Pacific coastal highways and swept cars into the sea.
Both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be dry, but it’s still a bit chilly with daytime temperatures high since the mid-’60s in Los Angeles and Orange counties. By Monday, another storm could move into the area, with about 30% light rainfall in Los Angeles. Also, Southland could only experience gusts of wind from the system, Wofford said.
“If you get something, it’s going to be pretty light,” Wofford said.
Despite recent rainfall, much of Southern California is still usually a few inches below, in terms of yearly rainfall in water.
Downtown LA has received 7.58 inches of rain since the year of water began on October 1st. The average at this point in the water season is 11.96 inches, with an annual average of 14.25 inches.
“There’s a few things to do,” Wofford said. “We’re not going to bring much to us next week, so we’ll be in the red for a while. Unless something really changes dramatically, we’ll probably be below normal for the season.”
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