Southern California was beginning to dry out from two days of virtually nonstop rain Sunday, although several roads remained closed and more rain is in the forecast Sunday evening and over the next three days.
As of 7 a.m. Sunday, the powerful winter storm had dumped 10.79 inches of rain on Woodland Hills, 9.29 inches in La Canada Flintridge, 8.38 inches in Newhall, 8.11 inches in Pasadena, 6.88 inches in Burbank, 6.76 inches in Bel Air and 4.49 inches in downtown Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service.
Mountain High received 93 inches of snow, and Mount Wilson got 40 inches.
Some highway and surface streets were flooded Saturday, and authorities advised people not to travel if they can avoid it. Skies were partially clear Sunday morning, but the NWS said travel in the mountain areas would “still be very `dicey’ through the day.”
The following highway closures were ongoing Sunday:
— Interstate 5 was closed through the Tejon Pass from Parker Road to Grapevine Road;
— State Route 138 was closed in northern LA County from I-5 to 190th Street West;
— State Route 2 in the Angeles National Forest was closed from two miles north of I-210 to Vincent Gulch Road;
— State Route 39 in the Angeles National Forest was closed at East Fork Road.
Several thousand people remained without electricity Sunday due to weather-related outages.
“Crews have made major progress yesterday & overnight restoring power to 40,000 customers since 8 a.m. Saturday,” the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tweeted at 7:04 a.m. Sunday. “Overall, 91,000 customers have had power restored since the start of the storm & 53,000 remain affected as of 6 a.m.”
As of 9 a.m. Sunday, Southern California Edison reported 32 outages affecting over 4,800 customers in Los Angeles County, and four outages affecting 167 customers in Orange County.
Another storm system was expected to bring periods of rain and mountain snow to the Southland late Sunday through Wednesday. Gusty winds are possible for periods of time, especially Monday, before a warming and drying trend takes shape later in the week.
Scattered showers, isolated thunderstorms and some hail were expected Sunday afternoon and evening and early Monday, with the potential for minor urban flooding. For the first wave of the storm, NWS models suggested 0.25 to 0.50 inches of rain across coastal and valley areas with 0.75 to 1 inch in the mountains.
The following two waves are predicted to be much lighter, forecasters said, with sunny skies returning on Thursday.
Temperatures continue to be well below normal. Daytime highs on Sunday were 54 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, 52 in North Hollywood, 51 in Pasadena and 49 in Valencia. Those numbers were expected to be roughly the same over the next few days.
Lows are mostly in the 30s, dropping to the 20s in some mountain areas and in the 40s in Orange County.
Snow levels Sunday morning were hovering in the 1,500-2,000 foot range, and were expected to increase slightly to the 2,000-3,000 foot range in the afternoon.
A winter weather advisory was in effect until 10 p.m. Wednesday in the mountains.
Winds were relatively light Sunday, but gusts were expected to reach 40 mph in the mountains and 45 mph in the Antelope Valley.
Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain reopened Sunday after both parks were closed Friday and Saturday.
This weekend was the first time downtown Los Angeles received at least 2 inches of rain on consecutive calendar days since Feb. 28 and March 1 of 1978, according to the NWS.
The weather service added that Friday was the wettest February day at Burbank Airport since records began there in 1939, beating the previous record of 4.50 inches set on Feb. 8, 1993.