“It’s been eluding us for so long but our first significant rain of the season is finally upon us!” the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Los Angeles outpost, which is based in Oxnard, tweeted on Christmas Day.
Southern California saw its first significant storm of the wet season earlier this week, beginning on Sunday, Dec. 17, and stretching through Monday.
As of 2:05 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 28, the storm, which carried in a cold front from the northwest, had brought on heavy showers from Malibu to Westlake Village. According to the NWS, rainfall fell at 0.65 inches per hour at Leo Carrillo and 0.83 inches at Lechuza Fire Station. As of 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, Leo Carrillo State Beach had received 1.97 inches of rainfall and Lechuza Fire Station had received 2.52 inches, which happened to be both the most in the Santa Monica Mountains area and the most in LA County. Out of all the counties that the Oxnard NWS outpost monitors, Santa Barbara County saw the most rain by far, seeing well over 3 inches of rain in multiple spots.
Elsewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains, Stunt Ranch received 1.83 inches of rain from the storm, Topanga Fire Station got 1.78 inches and Monte Nido, 1.49.
The NWS warned of possible flooding and rock slides along PCH and canyon roads, but no major closures or accidents were reported. Power was lost temporarily in Topanga Canyon but no widespread or long lasting Southern California Edison power outages were reported.