A dry Saturday in Southern California offers a small reprieve to residents and roof repair companies alike

Southland residents are likely to get a brief reprieve this weekend from the storm system that brought lots of rain to the region over the last six days.

But it may not be time to put the umbrellas away yet. Experts said overcast weather on Sunday into Monday morning also could include some light rain before it clears away and brings warmer temperatures by Tuesday.

Saturday could come as a welcome change to residents after this week’s storm led to several records for the month of April, including six consecutive days of measurable rain in Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.

The storm also produced record low temperatures in the mid-50s for Long Beach, Woodland Hills, Lancaster and Los Angeles International Airport, weather experts said.

A lot of snow also fell in the mountains, including nearly three feet at Mountain High Resort over the past week. Mount Wilson saw eight to 12 inches of snow over a 24-hour period ending Friday morning, the largest 24-hour snow total at the peak in April since 1967, officials said.

While this week’s storm has aided in keeping people inside, it has caused roof repair companies to respond to more calls for service.

Lighthouse Roofing and Repair in Pasadena has seen its calls for service increase by as much as 20 percent this week, Owner James Willard, 59, said Friday.

His employees have responded to upwards of 10 calls per day, he said, adding that they have worked while wearing masks and gloves during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s definitely more emergencies right now than usual,” he said. “It seems like the more it rains, the more roofs get torn apart.”

In Orange County, Hoyt Roofs, Inc. in Anaheim has had to change its focus, putting contracted projects on hold during the course of the pandemic, while trying to keep up with the increase in repair calls.

“We’ve probably had 75 calls in the past four or five days,” said owner and operator Charles Woldhuis. “We’ve had a lot of people having issues with leakage in their homes.”

Because of the pandemic, the owners of both companies have seen contract projects postponed until at least the end of the month, maybe longer. In the meantime, they’ve taken extra precautions to keep their employees safe in the field, including extra protective gear, office social distancing and, in Woldhuis’ case, having field employees drive individually to job sites.

“I definitely know that some people are waiting for that to be over,” Willard said. “As soon as that happens, I think we’re going to be inundated. I think we’ll be really booked next year.”

As to the storm, this week’s rainfall has put some areas over their annual totals, including downtown L.A., which had seen 14.47 inches of rain since Oct. 1, more than a half-inch above its annual average, Meteorologist Ryan Kittell said.

By 11 a.m. Friday, La Canada had seen 4.66 inches of rain this week, while Porter Ranch had seen 4.09 inches, Van Nuys had 3.68 inches and Burbank saw 3.06 inches, Kittell said.

Lytle Creek, in San Bernardino County, was up to 10 inches by 2 p.m., while most canyon areas in Orange County were near six inches over the past five days, officials said.

“April is usually highly variable, so its rare to get this much in a week’s time,” Kittell said, “but to get three inches in April, we see that maybe every 10 years. It’s not unprecedented, but it’s rare.”

Long Beach, which had also surpassed its annual rain total for the season, has seen just above 3 inches of rain this week.

The slow pattern of the storm allowed desert areas like Lancaster (2.15 inches) to get nearly as much rain as Redondo Beach (2.25 inches) along the L.A. County coast.

Most areas of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties received anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain this week with a few spots in Orange County receiving more, Meteorologist Matt Moreland said.

The storm was projected to finish dropping water on the Southland and move east by Friday evening, Kittell said.

But that doesn’t mean the Southland was done just yet, with a dense marine layer possibly making way for less than one-tenth of an inch of light rain Sunday, Moreland said.

“It should be nothing like we’ve seen the last several days,” Moreland said. “After that, it does look like we’ll have several days of dry weather.”