Heavy rain forces flood advisory in Los Angeles Basin and valleys

Heavy rain swept into the Los Angeles area before dawn Saturday morning, causing the National Weather Service to issue a flood advisory for the L.A. Basin and the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

The National Weather Service said treacherous driving conditions caused hydroplaning on the 405 Freeway Saturday morning, and that urban flooding was expected through L.A. County through to 6:30 a.m. Flooding was also reported on the 110 and 91 freeways. Forecasters warned of “nuisance debris flows” in the burn areas.

Rain was falling as fast as one-tenth to one-quarter of an inch an hour in some areas, forecasters said.

The flood advisory, effective until 6:30 a.m., covered much of the region, from Sunland-Tujunga and Lake View Terrace to La Crescenta, La Canada Flintridge, Monterey Park, Sierra Madre, Diamond Bar, Acton, Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles. A flood advisory means that residents can expect ponding of water in urban areas.

A large band of showers was expected to move eastward out of the L.A. area later this morning.

As of 5 a.m., Santa Barbara has received most of the overnight rain, reporting 1.14 inches, while Ventura County was close behind, with Ventura reporting 0.93 inches of rain and Oxnard 0.69 inches. Los Angeles International Airport recorded one-quarter of an inch of rain, and Burbank, one-fifth of an inch.

[Updated at 6:40 a.m.: Radar shows precipitation moving east into the eastern San Gabriel and Pomona valleys and into San Bernardino County. Forecasters expect the cold, wet conditions to move out of the region Saturday night, and warmer weather to return next week. High pressure should bring temperatures in the valleys back into the 90s on Monday, forecasters said.

This October has seen nine days of rain, a new record for downtown Los Angeles since weather records began being kept in 1877. The previous record of eight days of rain in downtown Los Angeles during the month of October was in 1907.]

-- Rong-Gong Lin II

Photo: A lone cyclist peddles on Santa Fe Dam as sunlight breaks through clouds after an early morning rain in Irwindale. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Chris Miss]

Wha' happen'd to global warming? Oh, they now call it climate change.

[Jesús H.]

Global warming means that weather is become erratic for awhile. Overall, the globe does keep getting hotter.

"Climate change" is the term that conservatives came up with to make it sound less scary and more like a mere result of natural climatic processes that have nothing to do with human activities.

[Jim]

It's always been climate change. "Global Warming" was conjured up in order to disprove it.

Never mis-underestimate the right's ability to frame an argument to their benefit.

[Manny]

"Global" as in the entire planet, not local. This gradual worldwide warming has and will continue to cause changes in local climates planet wide. Those changes will vary by region. Setting all time records just provides more evidence of change.

[A.]

Hmm...these windy and rainy periods always seem to come right after we've had a day of those weird lines in the sky. Has anyone else noticed that?

[shannoninthevalley]

None of you are right. Climate change happens, anthropomorphic (human caused) climate change is happening and "global warming" is the currently expected outcome of anthropomorphic climate change. The warming, however, could in fact lead to a global ice age (anthropomorphic) as a result of desalinenation of the oceans, which could cease the ocean conveyer belt and trip us into an ice age very quickly. The controvery in the scientific community is not whether or not our adding chemicals to the atmosphere is changing climate, there's no debate about that, but exactly what that change will ultimately result in. Global climate systems are incredibly complex and difficult to predict.