L.A. rain timeline: Another storm hits, with more wet conditions next week
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Another day of chilly, wet weather is on tap for Southern California on Thursday, delivering a beneficial dose of moisture after a dry start to the winter season.
The storm, which is expected to drop between a tenth of an inch and a quarter of an inch of rain along the coast on Thursday with higher totals in the mountains and foothills, will move out of the region Friday, said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The weekend will be dry with temperatures in the high 60s and 70s, but it won’t last long. Another two storms are set to roll in next week.
“Those look possibly a little bit stronger than what we saw [Wednesday],” Lewis said.
Rain totals for the upcoming storms aren’t yet clear.
Southern California welcomed a surge of moisture that forecasters say could be the first in a series of early March storms, including a potential atmospheric river.
There’s a 40% chance of moderate rain amounts —between 1 and 2 inches — with the storm that’s arriving in the middle of next week. There’s a 30% chance the storm could bring even more rain than that, between 2 and 4 inches. And there’s a 30% chance it will deliver rain amounts under an inch, according to the weather service.
Forecasters say the rain that has fallen from this week’s storm hasn’t caused significant damage and has been mostly helpful for dry vegetation following a hot summer and a drier-than-normal start to winter that helped fuel one of the most destructive fire seasons in modern history.
As of 5 a.m. Thursday, 1.18 inches had fallen at Crystal Lake in the San Gabriel Mountains and 1.14 inches had fallen at Camp 9 in the high desert. The coast saw a bit less — with Los Angeles International Airport receiving just under half an inch and Long Beach getting 0.29 of an inch.
But the region still has a ways to go to get to normal rain levels for this time of year.
As of Wednesday, downtown L.A. had received just 6.11 inches of rain since the water year began Oct. 1. That is below the average for this point in the water season —11.27 inches. The annual average is 14.25 inches.
“These rains certainly help,” Lewis said. “It’s not bringing those high totals, but it’s still kind of dampening the fuels and hopefully giving us enough moisture to stay clear of the fire season for longer.”
The storm has also delivered a fresh dose of powder to California’s mountain ranges with more on the way through Thursday.
Los Angeles County officials said Wednesday that they were prepared for rain to hit the burn zones. The Palisades and Eaton fire burn scars are of particular concern during rain events because of the risk of debris flows. But rain rates are not expected to reach levels that would trigger destructive slides during this storm, according to the weather service.
Peak rainfall rates could reach between a tenth of an inch and a third of an inch per hour, with rain rates in some areas reaching half an inch per hour. Experts say the risk of mud and debris sliding off burned hillsides rises once rain starts falling at a rate of half an inch per hour.
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