Rain arrives in California, but more dry weather on the way

Southern and Central California got a much-needed dousing of rain overnight Friday, with as much as an inch falling in higher elevations in Los Angeles County.

But the state will need a lot more precipitation to pull it out of the statewide drought, meteorologists said Saturday, forecasting more dry weather for next week.

Starting around 11 p.m. Friday, coastal and valley areas in Los Angeles County got between a quarter-inch and a half-inch of rain, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Mountain and foothill regions reported between a half-inch and an inch, with “a dusting of snow” in areas over 6,000 feet.

In Ventura County, rain caused mudslides in one Camarillo neighborhood, with waist-high mud reported. Officials rescued one person and evacuated 11 homes, the Ventura County Fire Department reported.

Isolated showers in the region were expected to continue throughout Saturday, but beyond that “unfortunately, no more rain is expected,” Kittell said, forecasting that temperatures would again reach the 80s in the coming week.

A few locations might even experience heat in the lower 90s, he said.

As of Saturday morning, downtown L.A. had received 0.43 inches of rain due to the storm, bringing the total for the current water year, which began on July 1, to 0.48 inches.

Typically total rainfall downtown by this time of year is 0.95 inches, Kittell said.

Kevin Durfee, a National Weather Service meteorologist working in Hanford, Calif., said that the Central California interior also “got a pretty good soaking of rain and high-elevation snow” from the storm, which he expected to continue dousing the parched region throughout the day Saturday.

San Joaquin Valley rainfall was around a half inch to an inch by 10 a.m. Saturday, with higher elevations receiving nearly twice that amount of precipitation.

Durfee’s office had received reports of 4 to 11 inches of snow from some locations above 7,000 feet. Winter snowfall is crucial for replenishing state water supplies.

But Durfee also predicted drier days ahead for his part of the state.

“This storm has been good, it’s brought some replenishment of snow in the Sierras,” he said. “But we need several more storms like this one to get close to normal.”

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