Southern California recovers from the wettest Christmas season in recent memory
Residents of Southern California are undertaking a massive cleanup effort following the region’s wettest Christmas break in recent memory, which transformed parts of the state into scenes of mud and debris. Just a year prior, historic wildfires ravaged the parched neighborhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. However, in a phenomenon termed “hydroclimate whiplash” by scientists, the scenario has flipped as an atmospheric river from the Pacific delivered extreme winds and rain. Southern California experienced its most rainfall ever recorded on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with Santa Barbara airport receiving 5.91 inches of rain. In one specific location within the Ventura County mountains, over 17 inches fell. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day proved to be the rainiest periods for numerous regions in Southern California, with parts of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County receiving more than 10 inches of rainfall. The inclement weather resulted in fallen trees, numerous vehicle accidents, and power outages affecting thousands throughout the state. Many individuals discovered their homes and gardens inundated with flows of mud. On Christmas Day, the weather system produced a tornado, as confirmed by the National Weather Service, which damaged a residence and a commercial strip mall in Boyle Heights. With wind speeds reaching up to 80 mph, the tornado traveled one-third of a mile shortly after 10 am on Thursday and was categorized as an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Its destructive path included roof damage to a home, shattered windows, toppled tree branches, a bent utility pole, and ruined commercial signs in a shopping area. “The safety of every Angeleno is my top priority,” stated Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who previously announced a temporary state of emergency, addressing the tornado and “consecutive days of wet weather.” Firefighters in Los Angeles County rescued more than 100 individuals on that Thursday alone, with a helicopter retrieving 21 people from stranded vehicles. California Governor Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Shasta counties. Although the heaviest rains have subsided, the National Weather Service advised that there remains a risk of flash floods and mudslides. “Still not quite out of the woods, but for the most part, the worst is over,” remarked Mike Wofford, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. Forecasters are predicting a dry weekend before additional rain arrives around New Year’s Eve. Sherry Tocco shared with the Los Angeles Times how her mountain community of Wrightwood, located 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was battered by rainfall that converted roadways into rivers and buried vehicles under stones, debris, and mud. She described the torrent as “raging” before it “just came through and destroyed, took everything with it.” Tocco reported that firefighters aided her evacuation while she had to sleep in her car. However, precipitation that fell as rain in lower areas turned into snow at higher elevations, with snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains reaching up to 2 inches per hour.
Published: 2025-12-27 18:15:00
source: www.theguardian.com
