With the recent, massive storm moving on, Southern Californians can expect days of sunshine, even as some residents continue to clean up and dig out from the mud.
That reprieve will be brief:
The National Weather Service says the region will likely see a repeat storm system on Monday and Tuesday. With the rain, residents could expect more dangerous flooding and mudflows.
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“People should just be aware that potentially hazardous weather is coming again,” said Casey Oswant, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “When there’s rain, there’s always potential for flooding — it’s just a matter of how widespread it will be.”
This week’s storm dropped a historic amount of rain on the region, with the NWS calling the rain totals “impressive” and saying the greater L.A. area hadn’t seen anything like it since January 2005.
That left some areas of Southern California still recovering from the effects of the two-day downpour.
While the L.A. area did not experience the full force of the storm — unlike San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, which saw between five and 10 inches of rain, resulting in huge mudflows in some hillside communities — the region did see limited damage.
In the San Fernando Valley, some neighborhoods of Studio City had flooded streets covered in murky water and mud. On Fredonia Street, debris flows trapped some residents in their homes. Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters said they checked on 17 homes; none were damaged but on one street “about one foot of mud” pushed up against a home’s back sliding door.
In Chatsworth, a huge sinkhole opened up on Iverson Road near where the route passes underneath the 118 freeway, swallowing up two cars and trapping two people. In Orange County, some flooding was reported, with a portion of Pacific Coast Highway briefly shutting down on Tuesday because of rising water, and the coastline getting battered a bit.
Residents should get ready to see similar dangerous weather next week, Oswant said.
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For at least a month, Southern California has received above0average rainfall. That likely has left much of the area saturated — with nowhere else for the water to go but up.
That means more potential flooding on city streets, and mudflows in canyon communities, especially areas where there has been fire recently.
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“It’s just been raining very consistently,” Oswant said. “That does make everything a little more saturated, which means its less likely for water to be absorbed into the ground.”
In the meantime, residents will get to enjoy a few days of cool-but-sunny weather.
“There will likely still be a fair amount of high clouds, but expect some sunshine across the region on (Thursday),” forecasters in the NWS Los Angeles office wrote.
Some areas could see strong winds with temperatures topping 70 degrees. In the Inland Empire, temperatures could reach the mid-70s.