Storm leaving Southern California by Thursday; breaks 50-year-old rainfall records in Los Angeles, Long Beach


A woman improvises to keep dry as she walks on North Spring Street in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News)

By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
POSTED: 12/03/14, 8:01 PM PST | UPDATED: 2 DAYS AGO


People use umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain as they make their way along North Main Street in Los Angeles, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News)

RECORD RAINFALL

Tuesday’s rainstorm lingered a little longer than expected, breaking numerous rainfall records for Dec. 2 at the following locations in Southern California:

Location — Tuesday — Previous record (Year)
Downtown L.A. — 1.21 — 1.10 (1961)
LAX — 1.12 — 0.73 (1966)
Palmdale Airport — 1.20 — 0.46 (1961)
Sandberg, Calif. — 1.49 — 1.07 (1961)
Lancaster Fox Field — 1.14 — 0.45 (1961)
Long Beach Airport — 1.04 — 0.79 (1961)
Santa Barbara — 2.14 — 2.12 (1966)
* all rainfall totals in inches (during 24-hour period)
Source: National Weather Service


A warm-weather storm that lingered over Southern California longer than expected and shattered 50-year-old rainfall records should dissipate by midday Thursday, although forecasters predict a slight chance for more storms this weekend.

What Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert called a Pineapple Express storm intertwined with a low-pressure system made its last significant appearance Wednesday night, dropping more rain in the Southland.

The National Weather Service predicts Thursday will be a drying out day for Southern California, with a 10 percent chance of rain, partly cloudy skies and highs in the upper 60s in the valleys and coastal areas.

“I think the worst is past for Southern California. You can characterize the rain (Wednesday) as showery,” said Jeff Lorens, meteorologist with the NWS western regional office in Salt Lake City.

The last gasp of the two-day storm was felt in the foothill portions of Azusa and Glendora where the 1,952-acre Colby Fire in January denuded hillsides and where 1 1/2 inches of rain Tuesday caused minor mudflows onto streets described by one county worker as resembling “chocolate milk.”

Glendora residents were equipped with 18,000 sandbags and city and county crews were clearing storm drains and streets Tuesday and Wednesday. Other burned-out areas, including the region near the July Powerhouse Fire in Santa Clarita, escaped major mudslides.

The storm was scheduled to clear out of Ventura County by late Wednesday, much sooner than other parts of Southern California.

Eastern Los Angeles County residents were scheduled to see showers into Thursday morning that could drop between 1/4 and 1 inch more rain, said Kathy Hoxsie, meteorologist for the local office of the National Weather Service.

Fog and misty drizzle with the possibility of thunderstorms had been forecast for the Inland Empire through Wednesday, according to the NWS. San Bernardino mountain ski resorts will continue to experience warm rain, with snow levels above 9,000 feet.

Hoxsie said a new storm will develop Friday and Saturday in Central and Northern California, but there is only a slight chance it will drop lower into Los Angeles County. “We are not expecting a lot of precipitation,” she said.

Tuesday’s rainfall totals, however, surprised some forecasters.

Rainfall in downtown Los Angeles (1.21 inches), Long Beach Airport (1.04 inches), Lancaster (1.14 inches) and Palmdale (1.20 inches) shattered records held for that day in 1961, Lorens reported.

“The storm is evolving a little bit,” Lorens said Wednesday afternoon.

“Yesterday, we were looking at additional moisture into Southern California today. Now it is looking like most of the moisture is moving to the east.”

The storm dusted the central Sierra Nevada with 24.5 inches of snow at elevations above 8,000 feet, Lorens said, with the possibility of another 1-to-2 feet of snow falling in those mountains through Thursday, he said.

Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada had reached zero percent this spring and summer. Melting snowpack is a major source of water sent to Southern California via the State Water Project.

An arm of the storm will be shifting to Northern California late Thursday and the Pacific Northwest beginning Friday, he said.

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