Southern California is expected to be drier and colder Wednesday, a day after a massive storm drenched the region with record rainfall, strong winds and mountain snow and prompted mandatory evacuation orders.
The storm on election day doused Los Angeles International Airport with 1.44 inches of rain, breaking its previous record of 1.3 inches set in 1998, according to the National Weather Service. In Burbank, it rained 1.31 inches, surpassing its 1979 record of 0.66 of an inch. Long Beach received 0.86 of an inch of rain, breaking its record of 0.85 of an inch set in 1998. Lancaster and Palmdale also saw their records broken, receiving 0.57 of an inch of rain and 0.38 of an inch, respectively, surpassing their previous records of 0.4 of an inch and 0.22 of an inch.
The storm, which began to taper off Wednesday, originated from the Gulf of Alaska and was driven by a lower-pressure system off the coast, according to the weather service. It dropped at least an inch of rain in most spots in Southern California, with mountain areas receiving a couple inches of rain.
Temperatures will remain 10 to 15 degrees below normal Wednesday, with chilly nights expected for the next few days, according to the weather service. A Santa Ana wind event is also developing, peaking Thursday in the Santa Lucia Range in San Luis Obispo County and Friday morning across the valleys in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, bringing gusty and cool winds to the region.
A freeze warning is in effect from Wednesday at midnight through 9 a.m. Thursday for the Antelope Valley and San Luis Obispo County interior valleys, including Lancaster, Palmdale, Carrizo Plain, Creston and Shandon, according to the weather service. Temperatures as low as 27 degrees are expected, posing a hypothermia risk for people and animals. Officials have warned residents to protect plants from the cold and to take time to defrost windshields.
“This was the most significant storm we’ve seen this year so far and it was noteworthy since it’s early,” said Kristen Stewart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “We usually see more significant rain in the January, February and March timeframe.”
A flash flood warning was mistakenly sent out by the weather service to a far larger area than intended Tuesday. The warning, which was meant for about 1,500 people in the Fish fire burn area east of Duarte, went wide when a “glitch” changed the small, targeted area to all of L.A. County, according to the National Weather Service. The warning was canceled, and a corrected warning was sent to those in the burn scar area.
At least one person died and two were missing Tuesday after stormwater swept a group of people in an Ontario wash at about 9:45 a.m. in the 1200 block of East 4th Street, according to officials.
Six people, who were believed to have been living in the wash, were swept up in the water; rescuers implemented a search and rescue operation and pulled three people out.
An unidentified man was found dead in a drainage basin; two others were still missing as the search continued through the afternoon and Wednesday morning, officials said.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued for about 25 homes in Duarte, near where the Fish fire ignited in June. The order was lifted Tuesday at 10 p.m.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department issued a voluntary evacuation warning Tuesday for Silverado, Williams and Modjeska canyons in the Bond fire burn area. The orders have also since been lifted.
A winter storm warning was issued until 10 a.m. Wednesday for portions of the San Bernardino County mountains, including Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, Crestline, Big Bear Lake, Running Springs, Wrightwood and Idyllwild-Pine Cove, according to the weather service.
Additional snow accumulations up to 5 inches were possible Wednesday morning while the 5 Freeway in the Grapevine could get up to half an inch of snow.
Heavy snowfall and power outages prompted the Bear Valley Unified School District to close its schools Wednesday because of the weather, according to a district news release.
More storms will be required in order to put a dent in California’s ongoing drought, which is entering its fourth year in a row, but any rain at this point will be beneficial, according to Stewart. The state is grappling with its driest three-year period on record, and long-range forecasts have suggested that drier-than-average conditions are expected to continue this water year, which began Oct. 1.
“Any rainfall early in the water year is good for us to start alleviating the drought,” Stewart said. “The earlier the rainfall starts, the earlier it can start filling reservoirs and the snowpack in the Sierra. We haven’t had a huge fire season this summer and into the fall, so this early-season rain will help us with any Santa Ana events and alleviate potential for fire later on.”
A wet start to the water year but drier weather later on could also mean that fire season could start earlier than expected, as it did last year, Stewart said.
“It really depends on how the rest of the year pans out,” she said.
