Follow Meteorologist D.J. Kayser on Twitter (@dkayserwx) or on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).
You know what they say – “it never rains in California, but girl, don’t they warn ya, it pours, man, it pours.” Well, it poured in southern California Tuesday. And the rain that fell was not only a record for the day in many locations, but some of the heaviest one-day rain totals they’ve seen in any September!
Record September Rainfall
Rainfall totals Tuesday in the Los Angeles area.
Numerous areas in the Los Angeles area saw more than an inch of rain fall Tuesday – even all the way out to Burbank and Riverside. Officially 1.80″ fell at the Los Angeles airport, making it the wettest September day on record for the airport (previous: 1.66″ on September 30. 1983). In downtown L.A., 2.39″ fell – and we’ll talk more about that total in a moment. While the rain was beneficial to the region – L.A. County Public Works said on twitter they captured 360,000,000 gallons of stormwater yesterday – it did leave to flooding in some areas. There were even reports of some high-water rescues.
Again, in downtown Los Angeles, 2.39″ of rain fell during the day on Tuesday. This was good enough to quickly move up in the record books to the second wettest September day on record in the City of Angels, but fell far short of the record set back on the 25th of 1939. That rainfall yesterday was also good enough to make this September (so far) the third wettest on record – however they would need to more than double Tuesday’s amount to approach the wettest September on record.
But it wasn’t only the Los Angeles area that saw heavy rain. Let’s head down the coast toward San Diego where they picked up 1.21″ of rain Tuesday as well. That not only broke the record for the day, but also marked the second wettest September day on record for the city. Tuesday fell just short of the September record set back on the last day of the month in 1921 when 1.23″ fell. The 1.21″ also counts as the total for the month so far, and makes it the fourth wettest September (so far) on record.
Rain Forecast
We aren’t expecting much (if any) rain over the next five days over southern California, but some areas may pick up up to a quarter inch of rain during the day today. The rain over the next few days out west will be focused mainly in northern California into the Northwest, where some places could pick up a couple inches of rain by next Monday.
(CHECK OUT YOUR FORECAST: wx.aerisweather.com)
– Meteorologist D.J. Kayser
