The first major weather system of the fall season is “pretty much over” Thursday, having had relatively little impact in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
The chance of showers was set at 20 percent Thursday in areas of L.A. and Orange County.
The most serious downpour in L.A. County occurred Wednesday night between 10:30 p.m. and midnight when a couple of rain cells dropped .76 inch of rain in 13 minutes, most of it in the San Gabriel Valley and San Gabriel Mountains, said Oxnard-based NWS meteorologist Dave Bruno.
Bruno had said earlier this week that Wednesday’s storm — an upper-level low-pressure system out of the eastern Pacific — would be unusually strong for this time of the year. He said Thursday morning that his expectation was borne out — only not in the Southland, but largely north of it, including in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
“We were bummed out,” Bruno said, describing his reaction and that of colleagues to the limited rainfall, adding at 5 a.m.: “It’s pretty much over” except for possibly isolated showers.
There had been some fears of mud and debris flows down slopes denuded by wildfires in case of thunderstorms, but the only thunderstorms recorded were outside L.A. and Orange counties, said San Diego-based NWS meteorologist Stefanie Sullivan. In Orange County, the storm “didn’t do too much,” she said.
According to NWS precipitation totals, the greatest rainfall recorded in L.A. County in a 24-hour period ending at 5:30 a.m. Thursday was San Dimas with .93 inch. The second-highest total was at Puddingstone Dam, which is also in the San Gabriel Valley, with .76 inch. Even mountain areas got little rain, with the highest mountain total being a mere .31 inch.
Similarly unspectacular totals were recorded in Orange County, where the highest volume of rain — less than a half-inch — was reported at Santiago Creek in the Santa Ana Mountains.
The NWS forecast partly cloudy skies Thursday and highs of 65 degrees on Mount Wilson; 69 degrees in Avalon; 71 at LAX; 74 in Downtown L.A., Long Beach, San Gabriel and Burbank; 75 in Pasadena and Saugus; 77 in Palmdale and Lancaster; and 78 in Woodland Hills. Temperatures will mostly remain in the 70s through Wednesday, but Woodland Hills will hit the 80s.
Sunny skies were expected in Orange County, along with highs of 69 in San Clemente; 72 in Laguna Beach; 73 in Newport Beach; 76 Anaheim; and 77 in Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Irvine and Mission Viejo. Temperatures will remain at roughly the same levels through Wednesday.