Southern California may have had the perfect rainstorm

Tuesday’s rainstorm did not break records by epic amounts or pull parched Southern California out of its drought, but meteorologists were satisfied. This may have been the perfect storm.

Or close enough.

It was strong enough to do some good not just for the L.A. area but also the rest of the state. But it wasn’t so strong that it over-saturated foothills and caused mud to swamp neighborhoods.

A low-pressure system from the Pacific Northwest brought steady showers throughout the day that caused little damage. The forecast called for several hours of torrential rains that raised concerns of mudslides, flooding and other hazardous conditions in areas burned by wildfire.

But the ground was able to absorb most of the water from the constant but not overpowering rain, said Kathy Noxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“This was as low impact of a storm as you can get,” Noxsie said. “There was very little wind, steady rain, no pounding rain that would have caused problems like flooding. It was a good winter storm.”

As with most big rainstorms, there were multiple traffic accidents, as well as some incidents of rock slides in Malibu and a precautionary evacuation of 75 homes in Camarillo.

But rain totals were right on target with forecasts, Noxsie said. Downtown Los Angeles received 1.22 inches of cumulative rainfall and San Gabriel mountains had 2.40 inches, according to figures compiled by the National Weather Service.

Scattered showers continue to fall over the region and will linger into Thursday. A weak system may bring some light rain showers late Friday and into Saturday morning.

“It was an excellent start to the season,” Noxsie said. “We hope to get more storms like this.”

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