(The Center Square) – Another storm started Thursday afternoon in Southern California, but it isn’t expected to have the punch of the last one.
Last weekend’s storm saw some records broken, including the most dramatic one in Santa Barbara, National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Lewis told The Center Square.
“Their storm got 8.42 inches, which shattered the all-time monthly November record of 6.95 inches set in 1965,” Lewis said.
The Weather Channel said last weekend’s storm marked Santa Barbara’s wettest November rainfall since 1941.
Downtown Los Angeles saw 3.48 inches of rain last weekend, which is the highest November amount it’s seen since 1970, Lewis said. He added that’s the 12th highest November rainfall overall for the downtown area.
Lewis works in a weather service office that serves counties such as Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara. That office is in Oxnard, where Lewis said Ventura County’s largest city last weekend saw its third highest November rainfall with 5.83 inches.
Despite the record rain, there were no major floods, although there were some fast winds, minor debris flows and downed trees and power lines.
“We made it out without any real issues, despite incredible rain totals,” Lewis said.
Last weekend’s storm started the night of Nov. 12 and went nearly nonstop through Monday. The National Weather Service expects the new storm to taper off by Friday night in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
“We’re projecting 0.75 to 1.25 of rain between today and tomorrow,” Lewis said Thursday about the two counties.
Normally that’s not enough to raise concerns, but the ground is already saturated from last weekend’s storm, Lewis said.
The weather service warned of potential impacts such as wet roads, minor road flooding, traffic delays, rockslides, mudslides, and isolated downed trees and outages.
But no widespread impacts are expected, Lewis said.
Last weekend’s storm was caused by an atmospheric river, bringing moisture from the tropics near Hawaii. Lewis said the new storm is the more conventional kind, following Pacific Ocean currents flowing south from Alaska.
Rain or no rain, it’s been a colder-than-usual November week for Southern California. The National Weather Service predicted highs Thursday in the mid or upper 50s in much of the region. San Diego is warmer, with a high of 63.
