Heavy rainfall and a chance of thunderstorms are expected Tuesday as a series of El Niño-related storms rolls across Southern California this week.
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Hikers walk along a path at the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area near downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016.
Rain is expected to continue throughout the week, and a slew of storms are set to follow, worrying officials.
Still, Patzert said, Southern California isn’t expected to encounter the same kind of widespread regional flooding that has hit the South in recent weeks.
An El Niño-strengthened storm brought widespread rain to drought-stricken California on Tuesday, triggering flooding that clogged roadways, and authorities warned residents about possible mud slides.
Further north, the Bay Area county of Santa Cruz saw heavy rainfall, and the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper said vehicle accidents were reported across the greater Bay Area.
“The first El Niño-enhanced storms of the year will bring soaking rain and heavy mountain snow before winding down on Friday” states AccuWeather’s Senior Meteorologist Ken Clark. California could be issued a flash flood watch as two storms, forecasted for Wednesday and Thursday, could cause 3 inches of rain.
The brewing El Nino system – a warming pattern in the Pacific Ocean that alters weather worldwide – is expected to impact California and the rest of the nation in the coming weeks and months. After multiple weeks of these El Nino fueled storms, the ground will become more and more saturated.
El Nino’s effects on California’s drought are hard to predict, but Patzert said it should bring at least some relief.
And “when the jet stream is stronger and closer, the storms can maintain their strength or get stronger as they approach California”, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at Stanford University, said in an interview.
The rain and snow hitting California this week – partly fueled by one of the strongest El Niños on record – will put a dent in the state’s 5-year-old drought, but there’s a catch.
“I hope that it rains so much that Noah and his ark are flowing down the San Joaquin River”, he said. Residents of the Silverado Canyon burn area in Orange County and the Solimar burn area in Ventura County were urged to consider evacuating. In Los Angeles, the fire department is ready with swift-water rescue teams, extra efforts to protect the homeless have been drawn out, and Mayor Eric Garcetti already encouraged his constituents to clean their gutters and be wary of any storm drain cloggers.
Garcetti also said that the city’s homeless encampments have been mapped for the first time, and he promised shuttles to bring people to shelters with 6,000 beds.
“We’re at least on a good trajectory”, he said.
LAX saw 1.42 inches fall throughout the day, beating the previous January 5 record of 1.32 inches in 1979.
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The storms are also whipping up large long-period ocean swells that could generate hazardous breaking waves at west-facing harbors in San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties, officials said.
