Southern California rain and snow above monthly averages, with more on the way
A storm system that already dumped plenty of rain and snow this week was expected to continue through Friday evening, weather experts said Thursday.
Most of Southern California received enough rain or snow this week to exceed the monthly average for precipitation, National Weather Service meteorologists said Thursday afternoon. Coastal areas and cities already saw between 1 to 4 inches of rain this week, and Mountain High Ski Resort got about 34 inches of snow in the past five days, weather officials said.
The San Bernardino Mountains got up to 2 feet of snow, but county officials are not allowing snow play due to concerns of the coronavirus.
A couple of more inches of rain was expected to continue through Friday evening, with up to another 18 inches in the mountain areas.
Most cities and communities were already reporting close to normal rainfall, so by Friday evening many areas should be at or above average for the rainy season, which begins in October, said James Brotherton, a meteorologist with the NWS San Diego office. That will help make up for this year’s fairly dry January and February, he added.
“Areas in Orange County and the Inland Empire are nearly normal for the seasonal rainfall now, another inch or two of rain could push them above normal,” he said. “The rain through tomorrow should put most places above normal.”
For example, Ontario Airport’s April normal is a quarter-inch of rain, but so far this month there’s been 2.5 inches, Brotherton said.
The San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys received anywhere from 1.89 to 4 inches, depending on the city, said Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the NWS Oxnard office. Long Beach got about 2 inches of rain, with slightly more in downtown Los Angeles.
“It’s definitely a wet month,” Smith said. “Yesterday for downtown Los Angeles, we were exactly at the average rainfall. We’ll probably end up being above average in a lot of places.”
Folks should expect to see scattered rain showers overnight through Friday afternoon, Smith said. The storm system was moving west to east, so foothill and mountain areas could see more precipitation linger into the evening, she added.