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L.A.’s Rainfall Inches Closer to All-Time Record

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Times Staff Writers

A fast-moving storm dropped about an inch of rain on downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning, snarling early commuter traffic and nudging the city closer to the all-time seasonal rainfall record that has stood for 121 years.

Hail fell in several areas, and the storm churned up powerful winds off the Orange County coast that moved onshore near Dana Point, damaging a beach house and several mobile homes.

The National Weather Service said the 1.02 inches of rain that fell on downtown Los Angeles raised the total for the season -- which runs from July 1 through June 30 -- to 37.06 inches, just 1.12 inches short of the record of 38.18 inches, set in 1883-84.

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But breaking that record isn’t going to be easy. To do so, downtown Los Angeles needs an additional 1.13 inches of rain between now and the end of June; normally, the city gets only about a quarter of an inch during that period.

“I know I’m sticking my neck out, but I have a strong feeling that we’re going to smash that record,” Bill Patzert, a meteorologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, said Thursday.

Patzert said the fact that this rainy season was in second place was remarkable considering the lack of El Nino, the oceanic-meteorological phenomenon that often brings heavy rain to Southern California.

“This winter has broken all the rules,” he said. “We’re knocking on the door.... We’re still in a winter weather pattern, and all we need is one or two small storms like Thursday’s and we’ll get that record.”

Thursday’s storm was a classic “cutoff low,” a system that dropped out of the normal storm track to the north and stalled off the coast, picking up additional moisture before finally moving onshore shortly after midnight.

The winds in Orange County made landfall at Capistrano Beach, scattering roof tiles and blowing out the windows of an oceanfront house before turning inland. About half a mile north on Doheny Park Road, wind tore into the Beechwood Village Mobile Home Park. Several trees toppled, shattering windows, ripping up awnings and collapsing a carport. “It was like a swoosh and a growl,” said resident Elizabeth Lynch. “It sounded like moving thunder.”

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There were no reports of injury.

The heaviest rain fell between about 4 and 7 a.m., tapering off to scattered showers that petered out by midafternoon.

Storm totals by nightfall Thursday included 2.24 inches at Santa Paula Creek in Ventura County, 1.54 at the top of the Sepulveda Pass in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1.26 at Refugio Pass in Santa Barbara County, 1.22 at the Hotel Bel-Air in Bel-Air, 1.19 in Burbank, 1.12 in Long Beach, 1.07 in Claremont, 0.95 of an inch at Opids Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, and 0.95 in Altadena.

The relatively brief storm walloped morning commuters, flooding low-lying intersections and stretches of freeway with poor drainage. Hundreds of vehicles skidded out of control on the rain-slicked pavement.

The California Highway Patrol counted 175 accidents in Los Angeles County between 4 and 7:30 a.m., an unusually high number even during a major rainstorm, said CHP Officer David Porter. During the same period Wednesday, when it was dry, there were only 16 crashes, he said.

Officers said a fatal collision involving a big rig on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Granada Hills about 4:30 a.m. forced traffic to be diverted to nearby streets for almost three hours.

Caltrans had to bring in a skip loader to remove debris after a pileup on the Santa Monica Freeway east of downtown. Big rigs that slammed into center dividers jammed traffic on the Golden State Freeway in the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley Freeway south of Palmdale.

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Standing water closed lanes on the Long Beach Freeway in North Long Beach for 90 minutes and a stretch of the Santa Ana Freeway in downtown Los Angeles for about 45 minutes.

Porter said that despite many warnings, drivers tend to forget how dangerous rainy weather can be.

“People need to be constantly advised to slow down,” he said.

Times staff writers Claudia Zequeira and Mai Tran in Orange County contributed to this report.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Downtown Los Angeles

Season record (1883-84): 38.18 inches

This season’s total through Thursday*: 37.06 inches

Thursday’s rainfall*: 1.02 inches

Needed to break record: 1.13 inches

* As of 4:00 pm.

Source: National Weather Service

Los Angeles Times

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