Soggy Christmas could make up for dry year

A heavy rainstorm, paired with wind gusts and snowfall in the mountains, is on the way to the Southland, just in time for Christmas, officials said.

“It will make it a little sloppy going to grandma’s house,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist with Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. “After it’s been so dry all year, up to a couple of weeks ago, it’s like we’re trying to catch up all at once.”

The big holiday storm should arrive tonight or Wednesday morning, bringing an inch to 3 inches of rainfall to Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties, said Bill Hoffer, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“This looks to be an energetic storm,” Hoffer said. “The potential exists for a very significant rainfall event lasting through Christmas.”

The storm has been building over the Pacific Ocean for the last four or five days, he said.

“These storms gain their energy by cold temperatures, and with the temperatures we’ve been having, the pressure has been building, so it should be a quick-moving front, but it should be strong,” Hoffer said.

And the rain won’t be coming alone, he said.

Gusty winds are expected across Central and Southern California from San Luis Obispo County down to Los Angeles County, Hoffer said.

Mountainous regions can expect winds from 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph Wednesday in L.A. and Ventura counties, he said. The snow level is expected to stay around 5,000 feet -- well above last week’s storm, which dumped snow as low as 2,000 feet.

“Don’t take any extra in-laws if you’re going up in the mountains,” Hoffer said. “Just in case, take extra blankets, water, food and chains for your tires if you’re going up in the mountains.

“If you’re staying in the cities, then you should be OK, but there will still be a good amount of rain,” he said.

The rain is expected to continue on and off through Christmas Day as high temperatures drop down to the low 50s over the holiday, he said.

“We really haven’t had the big deluge the way some other places in the country have,” Patzert said. “It’s inconvenient for some, but we actually really need this rain.”

From February to November, Los Angeles had about two-tenths of an inch of rainfall, he said.

“That’s pretty dry,” Patzert said. So we need a soggy Christmas “to make up for a dry year and to get a jump on next year.”

January and February are normally California’s wettest months, he said, but a dry spell is forecast going into the new year.

The stormy weather should turn around Friday and through the weekend, with highs expected in the 60s for the greater Los Angeles area and a return to Monday’s light rain or no rain at all, Hoffer said.

“This might be our last shot to get a good amount of rain for a while, so hopefully we get a lot of rain,” Patzert said. “Of course the big question is if the dry spell coming behind the Christmas rain storm . . . will mean a dry spell during January, February, March, like the one we saw this year.”

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nathan.olivarezgiles@latimes.com