A major winter storm that battered the northern and central parts of the state with heavy rain and snow is expected to hit Southern California Thursday night, Jan. 28, forecasters said.
The storm, known as an atmospheric river event, was expected to bring up to a couple of inches of rain to the Inland Empire and Los Angeles and Orange counties, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said. Communities with wildfire burn scars were preparing for potential mud and debris flows, and mountain communities were expecting several inches of snow.
This is what you should know:
What is an atmospheric river?
The term atmospheric river explains where the precipitation comes from; in this type of event, moisture is pulled from the tropics, meteorologist Casey Oswant said. Atmospheric rivers tend to bring more precipitation because the tropical air mass is usually warmer, she said, allowing the system to hold more moisture.
“This storm originated in the Gulf of Alaska, but the way it’s swinging out over the Pacific (Ocean), it’s scooping in that tropical moisture into it,” Oswant said.
The atmospheric river event starting Thursday is different than the storm that the region experienced last weekend, she said, and is different than the storm that could be coming early next week.
How is the storm impacting other parts of the state?
Coastal areas have seen up to 12 inches of rain already, in addition to 4 feet of snow across the central Sierra Nevada mountains, according to National Weather Service reports. An “epic amount” of rainfall was reported in one part of San Luis Obispo County — more than 14 inches of rain reported over two days.
While meteorologists don’t expect that much rainfall in Southern California, it is a good indicator of what could come.
“Because it’s been so productive over the central coast, we are still expecting periods of heavy rain,” Oswant said Thursday afternoon. “But we are expecting it to move a little bit faster out of our area and that will be the big difference. It’s really been sitting in the same spot in central California for the last 24 hours.”
What areas are being watched in Southern California?
Authorities and meteorologists were keeping a watchful eye on how the storm will impact areas that have wildfire burn scars, which include Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Some evacuation warnings were in place for those near the Bond fire in Orange County’s canyon areas and the El Dorado fire in the San Bernardino County foothills.
“For residents who live near any burns scars,” meteorologist Lisa Phillips said. “Make sure to have an evacuation plan if called upon to evacuate due to high rainfall, mud and debris in your area.”
How much rain will we get through this series of storms?
Last weekend brought between a half-inch to an inch of rain to coastal and inland areas, in addition to several inches of snow in the mountains. The storm starting Thursday was expected to bring 1.5 to 2 inches of rain to the Los Angeles area, with snowfall as low as 4,000 feet, Phillips said.
In Orange County and the Inland Empire, 1 to 1.5 inches of rainfall was expected, with several inches of snow in the San Bernardino and Riverside county mountains, Oswant said.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, there could be 6 to 10 inches of snow at 5,000-feet elevation, 10 to 16 inches at 6,000 feet, and possibly up to 30 inches at peaks. The Riverside County mountains were expected to see a few inches less than the San Bernardino Mountains.
Could this storm take us out of the drought?
While any precipitation the region gets will help drought conditions, it’s not likely that this storm alone would push Southern California out of it.
“We’ve gotten quite a lot of rain in San Luis Obispo and parts of Santa Barbara, so they’re looking pretty good,” Phillips said. “We’re not going to be getting those high amounts in Los Angeles, unfortunately, but some is better than nothing.”
Thursday’s storm, however, will help with fire conditions.
“You need a few storms in a row,” Phillips said. “And those could be Monday night into Tuesday. So that should help us out.”
Source: Orange County Register
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