With totals for the rainy season doubling in several places across Southern California, the region has seen an above-normal amount of precipitation since October, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
The NWS measures the rainy season from Oct. 1 to Sep. 30 of the next year.
“It’s definitely been an impressive winter,” said NWS meteorologist Rich Thompson.
Several locations in Los Angeles have dramatically increased total rainfall compared to last year, Thompson said — one being Downtown LA, which usually clocks in about 10 inches total for the rain season, he said. Only a few months into the rainy season, the area is already nearly 12 inches ahead of normal.
Places in Orange County, like Santa Ana and Fullerton, also had rainfall totals that were far above average for the season, NWS meteorologist Mark Moede said.
The same was true in the Inland Empire. Chino saw about 9 more inches of rain than average; by the same metric, Riverside saw about 3 inches more than normal for the season so far, he added. Ontario had an “incredible 10.40 inches above normal” for the season, Moede said.
More rain is expected in the coming weeks and will increase the season’s already-high totals.
Another storm is on the way for Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, he said. Another “potentially strong one” could occur next weekend as well, he added.
“We’ve got a couple more storms in the pipeline,” Moede said.
Take a look at the totals for the water year so far:
- Long Beach: 17.5 inches
- Downtown LA: 24.08 inches
- Burbank: 23.40 inches
- LAX Airport: 20.45 inches
- Santa Ana: 15.43 inches
- Fullerton: 18.83 inches
- Riverside: 11 inches
- Ontario: 20.1 inches
- Chino: 18 inches
