Officials expect worsening weather conditions Sunday evening; flooding possible

The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory for Los Angeles County and a flood watch for the Orange County coast, Riverside and San Bernardino County valleys and the Inland Empire through late Sunday, the first day of spring.

Rainfall of a quarter of an inch to half an inch per hour was expected in Los Angeles, with the possibility of rock slides and mudslides, authorities said.

Snow was accumulating on the Grapevine on Sunday and in the Ventura County mountains, with as much as 19 1/2 inches in Lockwood Valley, according to Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“We’ve got a little bit of everything out there,” Seto said.

A low-pressure storm system from the Gulf of Alaska, buffered by winds from the south, brought the rains, with more expected Sunday afternoon and evening.

“The brunt of the rain hasn’t started yet,” Seto said.

As of Sunday morning, three-tenths to an inch of rain had fallen along the coast of Los Angeles County, an inch to 1 1/2 inches in the valleys and 1 to 2 inches in the mountains. Santa Barbara County was inundated overnight, with 6.69 inches of rain in Los Prietos, 4.20 inches in Santa Maria and 3.5 inches in Los Alamos, Seto said.

“Once this front comes through Monday morning, we’ll have plenty of cold air behind it that will generate some thunderstorms and some lingering showers,” Seto said. “Then we get a little break, and it looks like Wednesday another shower of rain, although that may stay north of Santa Barbara.”

Los Angeles is expected to end the year with better-than-average rainfall, Seto said. Since July, Los Angeles had received 15.97 inches of rainfall as of midnight, compared with 15.14 inches in the same time period a year earlier, Seto said.

Friday, another low-pressure system is expected to arrive in Los Angeles, with more rain from the Gulf of Alaska, Seto said.

All highways remained open, and although there was an increase in accidents, no fatalities were reported, said California Highway Patrol Officer Ed Jacobs.

“This is typical of any rainstorm we get in L.A. County: It pours hard, water puddles on the freeway, and people drive too fast and end up crashing,” he said. “If you slow down and maintain space, you’ll be OK.”

The 5 Freeway was filled with weekend travelers. Snow that fell earlier in the morning was not sticking to the roads, and traffic was moving at about 55 miles per hour through the Grapevine, Jacobs said. Still, on Twitter, motorists lamented the weather and traveling in it, posting bleary photos of their drive along the highway.

For Billy Schmalfeldt, who had visited his girlfriend in Northridge, the drive home to San Leandro was slow going as he navigated the 5 Freeway during an onslaught of rain.

“The road was barely visible, and it was hard to see because of the back splash of water from the cars ahead,” he said. Schmalfeldt, 25, said wind gusts rocked his car, and at one point his car hydroplaned.

RELATED:

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Roads closed amid flooding, snow, mudflows from heavy rains

A dozen homes evacuated in Woodland Hills; flooding closes streets

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Corina Knoll

Comments

[Lazy Jane]

Is the jet steam over Los Angeles during these heavy rains causing the radiation from Japan to saturate the ground and food supply here?

[Peter Gordon]

No rain so far in south Orange County.

[larry]

Yes, Lazy. You better move to North Dakota.

[Carl Godlewski]

It's raining buckets in Venice and the wind is fierce.

[victorcab]

heavy rain, wind, lightning and thunder in Pasadena.

[boochie]

I guessing that the DWP will still manage to say we are in a severe drought situation this summer. The forecasters got it completely wrong this year. They all said it was going to be a warm dry winter. So much for forecasting!

[Emily]

No, Lazy Jane, it isn't. You forget that there's five thousand miles of ocean between Japan and Los Angles; only minute amounts will make it over. Not nearly enough to cause any health risks or collect in food and/or water supplies.

Let's put it this way: bananas are naturally slightly radioactive. Any extra radiation that we might (but probably won't) get through this storm will be like eating a single banana.

[Jennifer]

They monitor air radiation only, so we can't know. However, as it stood before the storm, only one of the days (3/15) had peak levels that were alarming, and the rest have been lower measurements of different types of gamma radiation than most areas in the US have normally. In the end, it's the annual exposure that matters - we'll be fine. It's not ideal, but we shouldn't be more concerned with things like controlling run-off into the bay than we are already (and hopefully, we are).

If you are concerned, you can check the EPA website and private monitoring websites like radiationnetwork.org for data. Ii can also recommend http://andyheather.posterous.com/radiation-levels-japan, because this does a great job of explaining the difference between CPM and milli/microseiverts.
The Washington state health bureau website has a table that will give you an idea of what peak measurements versus averages could look like (a lot of variation), and Technology Review Blog explains why the alarming NY Times map has data that is not very meaningful (http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/26538/?p1=Blogs).

Cheers.

And how about this rain, huh? My roof has sprung a leak, my yard is saturated, a foot tall canister outside has filled up and the squirrels are running around looking for new shelter. It sounds like a gale outside - or a bunch of hammers hitting the house. And my TV is making alarming sounds and flashing red banners across the bottom. I've never seen the whole TV alert thing before. And it's going to keep coming? Scaaary. Best thoughts for Tujunga/Flintridge-LaCanada!

[ExSoCal]

Just what we need. People driving the snowy Grapevine and posting pictures at the same time.

[Pete Sake]

We just came back from Big Bear Lake today and the weather coming down the mountain was intense. With the 330 already closed, this is a storm that could cause additional closures of the 18 and the 38. I wouldn't drive to Big Bear until after Monday afternoon to be safe.

[FactsAreFree]

And don't forget.... As of 3/20/2011, LADWP still has the "mandatory water conservation ordinance" in force and continues to assess a drought surcharge premium on water use. Not to mention restrictions on watering your lawn and continuing to cite folks for washing their cars and hosing down their walkways. Yes, really! Only in Los Angeles could this go on without anyone noticing (caring?) that all the reservoirs in the state are chock full, the Sacramento delta is flooded, and the Sierra snowpack is approaching record high levels. Despite the facts, this joke of an ordinance has yet to be challenged, rescinded, or even discussed by those who are supposed to represent the people of LA!