California’s moist winter continued Saturday as rain fell throughout the Southland, grounding flights coming out and in of Santa Barbara Airport and inflicting intensive street closures alongside the coast.
The soggy climate is predicted to proceed by means of Tuesday with the heaviest downfalls really fizzling out by noon Monday, in accordance with the Nationwide Climate Service. Nonetheless, even mild rain can have an outsized influence when it comes on the heels of different heavy winter storms, mentioned Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service.
“There’s solely a lot room for that rain to go, so it might nonetheless be a bit hazardous on the market,” he mentioned.
The latest storm system was extra extreme in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, however is predicted to weaken because it strikes into Los Angeles County. The Santa Barbara Airport canceled all flights going into and out of the airport Saturday round midday after a number of runways flooded. Officers on the small regional airport situated about seven miles from downtown Santa Barbara didn’t know when it will reopen and mentioned they’d reassess the state of affairs after the rains had stopped.
“I urge everybody to examine with their airways for flight standing earlier than coming to the airport,” a spokesperson mentioned.
The moist climate, mixed with an earlier storm over the Christmas and New Yr’s holidays, was additionally answerable for the shuttering of all lanes on a 27-mile stretch of the 101 Freeway extending from the junction of SR1 and Freeway 1 to Winchester Canyon Street in Goleta as a result of heavy flooding. And, on Friday, Caltrans closed the three.6-mile stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard identified to expertise mudslides between Pacific Coast Freeway and Grand View Drive. The reopening of the roadways was “depending on improved climate and street situations,” Caltrans mentioned
Downtown Los Angeles was moist Saturday as one other storm handed by means of the Southland.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
The wet system is predicted to weaken because it strikes south into Los Angeles County, however there’s a 20% likelihood that latest burn areas, together with the Palisades, Eaton and Bridge burn scars, might see mudslides. The Nationwide Climate Service additionally issued a flood advisory Saturday for the Santa Clarita Valley and the mountains in northwest L.A. County. The service warns of minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas, in addition to minor mudslides and particles flows, particularly close to steep terrain and up to date burn scars.
Automobiles drive on Freeway 101, flooded by the king tides, close to Corte Madera in Marin County on Saturday.
(Ethan Swope / AP)
Farther north within the Bay Space, a strong mixture of abnormally excessive king tides, massive swells brought on by a storm hanging out within the japanese Pacific, and rainfall throughout the area has led to coastal flooding. The flooding is primarily across the Embarcadero in San Francisco and in elements of Marin County. There have additionally been stories of excessive surf close to Half Moon Bay in San Francisco and a few flooding within the Elkhorn Slough space within the northern a part of Monterey County on Hwy 1.
Excessive tides might trigger one other spherical of coastal flooding on Sunday, however by Monday the area must be away from floods, mentioned Dial Hoang, a meteorologist on the Nationwide Climate Service in Monterey.
L.A. County has seen higher-than-normal precipitation this wet season, with significantly robust storms hitting the area over the Christmas and New Yr’s holidays. The ultimate wet days in 2025 helped pull California out of drought situations, in accordance with the U.S. Drought Monitor. And extra rain could also be on its approach. The wettest months of the yr are historically January and February.
