Rainfall since October in downtown Los Angeles has totaled nearly 21.4 inches, which is more than eight inches above normal rainfall for that period of time. The average rainfall by April 1 is 13 inches for the city.
The 2022-2023 water year—which began on Oct. 1, 2022, and ended Sept. 30, 2023—was 31.07 inches, which was the seventh-wettest year on record, according to the weather service. The total rainfall for the city in the last two water years is now 52.46 inches and counting, the NWS said.
It is also the most rain in consecutive water years since 1888-1889 and 1889-1890, over 130 years ago. During those two years, downtown Los Angeles received 54.1 inches.
Four major storm systems hit downtown Los Angeles in February, including one that produced the fourth-wettest calendar day in any February with 4.1 inches of rain. March also delivered above-normal rainfall to the region, the NWS reported.
Downtown Los Angeles received more than 2 inches of rain during the Easter Weekend storm. The rainfall on Sunday set a calendar day record of 1.73 inches, breaking the old record of 1.27 inches set in 1946.
And the rain keeps coming, according to forecasters.
Another rain system is expected to arrive in the Los Angeles area beginning Thursday evening and last until Friday evening, according to NWS Meteorologist Joe Sirard.
This week’s system will include cool temperatures, gusty winds, scattered showers, and mountain snow above 4,000 feet. There is also a slight chance of thunderstorms, according to Mr. Sirard.
“Right now, we’re not thinking it’s going to be as much rain as the last event,” Mr. Sirard told The Epoch Times. “It should be interesting to see what we get. WE are expecting we could get four to eight inches of snow in our local mountains.”
The weather service forecasts about one-tenth of an inch of rain at the Los Angeles-area beaches to a quarter of an inch in the valley, about one-tenth of an inch in the desert, and a quarter to a half-inch of rain in the mountains.
The storm will bring cooler weather, possibly resulting in an inch or more of snow falling on the Grapevine, a section of Interstate 5 in Kern County, from Friday morning into Friday evening, Mr. Sirard said.
“This could cause some delays over the Grapevine,” he said. “There will be wintery driving conditions in the mountains, so people need to be prepared for that.”
