0.78 inches in one go causes widespread flooding there? Crazy.
Baltimore averages 2.8 inches in November. We got just under 2 inches October 30th
Yeah but the area is used to that much precipitation and the bay and its tributaries are built for that.
LA doesn’t get that much rain and for it to fall over that large of an area (where some is mountains, so it drains down to the valley) is a big deal.
Also: the 2” in October was nearly a record for the area, and there was flooding.
Not just mountains, a lot of burn scars where the ground can’t even soak it up. Theres going to be landslides.
It’s normal for LA to get less than 18” of rain in an entire year. The ground is harder to saturate when it’s been dry so long, which makes flooding more likely. And along the LA River we have a godawful concrete channel that doesn’t let any water get absorbed once it hits the culvert. Combine that with rain for the next week (up to 6” possible in some areas) and really big recent (<2 years) burn areas, we might also be getting mudslides on top of everything else.
Wait until you learn that SoCal closes school when it rains.
First rain of the season turns the several months of accumulated oil on roads into a hydroplane free-for-all. I totalled a car that way. Nobody wants their kids in that melee.
That’s not true of most schools or most rains. I not only grew up in SoCal I also taught here, and only got two “rain days” in that entire time.
When it…rains? When it snows, sure. They don’t have plows there. But rain?
The streets and highways become very dangerous due to oil and other debris making the surfaces slippery. Pair that with drivers inexperienced with rainy weather and who routinely like to go well above the speed limit and you have the conditions for several road accidents.
0.78 inches in one go causes widespread flooding there? Crazy.
More than that. From the article, that’s just what they normally get in November.
the area — which receives an average of 0.78 inches in November
There will be two rounds of wet weather, with the first round expected to bring 1 to 3 inches of rain on Friday night.
The second round of rain is expected Saturday and will be more significant, potentially bringing heavy rainfall, gusty winds, small hail and isolated tornadoes.
A widespread 2 to 6 inches of rain, with higher amounts possible in some areas, is expected through Saturday across much of Southern California.
For perspective, average annual precipitation:
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-annual-precipitation-by-city.php
Baltimore, Maryland: 45.0 inches
Los Angeles, California: 14.3 inches
So imagine a little more than tripling the numbers there to get a feel for what might be comparable in terms of percentage of rain they’d normally get. For Baltimore, it’d be like maybe 6 inches to 18 inches in under two days.
I mean, I just looked up their current month.
For comparison, the 2018 Ellicott City flood (the 2nd hundred year flood in 2 years) in a city just south of Baltimore was over 9 inches of rain.
Which is roughly two months of rain in a single day.
LA is a much worse city wrt drainage than Ellicott city and its surrounding “suburbs” make it.
Man, it’s been a rough year for LA. Hope this event is mild.
