What records did the atmospheric river rain break in L.A.?
This rainstorm set some records. Let’s dig into the data and see how bonkers some of the rainfall numbers really were.
Dang, this recent rainstorm set some records. Just look at this National Weather Service data as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Zooming in on downtown L.A., we see that 8.13 inches has fallen over the last 3 days, which is bonkers when you consider this: The average yearly rainfall for downtown, over the last 30 years, is 14.25 inches. So from Sunday to Tuesday, more than half a year’s total rainfall fell.
More specifically, downtown L.A. got 2.93 inches of rain just on Monday, breaking a record for that day that had been in place for 123 years, since DTLA got 2.30 inches in 1901.
Looking at just Sunday and Monday, downtown got 7.03 inches. This is the third wettest consecutive two-day total since official weather records began in 1877. The record for most rainfall for two days in a row in downtown Los Angeles is 7.98 inches on Dec. 31, 1933, and Jan. 1, 1934, causing the Crescenta Valley Flood that killed at least 45 people and destroyed roughly 100 homes.
But downtown didn’t even get the most rain — we just use it as a benchmark because we’ve been keeping rainfall records there since 1877. Looking at other eye-popping totals from this three-day rainstorm, we see plenty of places got way more rain than downtown. Cogswell Dam north of Azuza in the San Gabriels got 13.15 inches. Bel-Air got 12.32 inches. Woodland Hills got 11.70 inches.
And in case you missed why we got so much rain to begin with, it’s because an atmospheric river decided to stop and chill for a few days over the L.A. basin.
Where did all that rainwater go? Well, a lot of it was whisked to the ocean, but L.A. did capture some of it. My colleague Judeh will dig into stormwater capture in a video later this week.
Zooming in on downtown L.A., we see that 8.13 inches has fallen over the last 3 days, which is bonkers when you consider this: The average yearly rainfall for downtown, over the last 30 years, is 14.25 inches. So from Sunday to Tuesday, more than half a year’s total rainfall fell.
More specifically, downtown L.A. got 2.93 inches of rain just on Monday, breaking a record for that day that had been in place for 123 years, since DTLA got 2.30 inches in 1901.
Looking at just Sunday and Monday, downtown got 7.03 inches. This is the third wettest consecutive two-day total since official weather records began in 1877. The record for most rainfall for two days in a row in downtown Los Angeles is 7.98 inches on Dec. 31, 1933, and Jan. 1, 1934, causing the Crescenta Valley Flood that killed at least 45 people and destroyed roughly 100 homes.
But downtown didn’t even get the most rain — we just use it as a benchmark because we’ve been keeping rainfall records there since 1877. Looking at other eye-popping totals from this three-day rainstorm, we see plenty of places got way more rain than downtown. Cogswell Dam north of Azuza in the San Gabriels got 13.15 inches. Bel-Air got 12.32 inches. Woodland Hills got 11.70 inches.
And in case you missed why we got so much rain to begin with, it’s because an atmospheric river decided to stop and chill for a few days over the L.A. basin.
Where did all that rainwater go? Well, a lot of it was whisked to the ocean, but L.A. did capture some of it. My colleague Judeh will dig into stormwater capture in a video later this week.
