Showers could linger in Los Angeles on Tuesday following four straight days of rain — and even more rain is likely on Thursday and Friday.
There’s a 20% to 30% of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday across much of Los Angeles County, the National Weather Service said, although it’s expected to be mostly sunny. The thunderstorms will remain a slight risk because of a cold front that ushered in unstable air Monday.
By Tuesday, the cold front will have moved away from L.A., but the cold core of the low-pressure system will still be around. “This will bring enough instability to the area for a slight chance of thunderstorm development,” the weather service in Oxnard said.
Temperatures have chilled with the latest storm. While the L.A. coast and San Gabriel Valley on Monday reached the mid-60s, due to late arriving rain, most of L.A. County’s coastal areas and valleys “struggled to get out of the 50s,” the weather service said.
Wednesday will bring a reprieve with sunny skies, but another storm is expected to enter Southern California on Thursday and continue through Friday.
Thursday’s storm is expected to drop from 0.25 to 0.75 inches of precipitation. That’s on top of the 0.74 inches of rain that fell on downtown L.A. in the 24-hour period that ended at 9 p.m. Monday. Before that, the weekend storm that began Friday brought 2.68 inches of rain to downtown.
For the 24-hour period ending 9 p.m. Monday, Porter Ranch received 1.61 inches; La Cañada Flintridge, 1.5; Northridge, 1.43; Bel-Air, 1.21; Castaic, 1.15; Van Nuys, 1.12; and Beverly Hills, 1.11.
Warm Springs Camp, in the mountains overlooking the Santa Clarita Valley, recorded an 18-hour rainfall total of 2.5 inches by Monday evening.
The storms, thus far, have caused some mayhem but no severe or life-threatening damage in recently burned areas.
By late Monday night, landslides and flooding were reported on a number of roads. The 5 Freeway near Highway 14, between Sylmar and Santa Clarita, suffered flooding Monday afternoon, as did an offramp on the 91 Freeway at Carmenita Road. The California Highway Patrol said there was flooding at onramps to the 10 Freeway in El Monte and the 605 Freeway on the southern border of Baldwin Park.
Mountain roads were hard hit. One motorist on Angeles Crest Highway, a road that winds through the San Gabriel Mountains, became “stuck in mud, dirt and rock” in a northbound lane, while the southbound lane was completely blocked with multiple landslides, according to reports filed to the National Weather Service. Snowplows couldn’t haul away the debris because it was too heavy.
Near the 101 Freeway in Hidden Hills, a number of vehicles hydroplaned as Round Meadow Road flooded near Mureau Road.
Monday afternoon and evening also brought rockslides or mudsldies to San Francisquito Canyon Road, the mountainous route that connects Santa Clarita to the Antelope Valley; a section of Kanan Dume Road, which leads into the Santa Monica Mountains from Malibu; and on Mulholland Highway south of Calabasas.
Snow levels were at around 7,000 feet on Monday but were expected to drop to 5,000 feet by Tuesday. Officials issued a winter weather advisory for the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the northern Ventura County mountains that is set to last through Tuesday night. About 2 to 5 inches of snow could fall in the mountains.
“As for the Grapevine area, there is a chance of a dusting of snow Tuesday morning as the snow levels lower,” the weather service said. The Grapevine is a key travel corridor on the 5 Freeway that connects L.A. and Santa Clarita with the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The highest point of the Grapevine section is the Tejon Pass, which peaks in elevation at 4,144 feet above sea level. At that location, “some non-accumulating snow is possible,” the weather service said.
