Heavy rain has doused much of California periodically this week, causing bouts of flooding from north to south. On Thursday morning, torrents overwhelmed Oxnard — 55 miles west of Los Angeles — trapping people, forcing evacuations, washing out roads and submerging structures. Into the afternoon, flooding also swamped roads around Santa Barbara. There is more to come into Friday as a flood watch remains in effect.
Widespread totals of 3 to 6 inches and localized higher amounts have been recorded in coastal mountain ranges, with 3 to 4 inches in many larger urban areas in the past few days, as a sprawling area of low pressure stalled nearby and then slowly drifted toward the coast. It remains off the shore of Southern California, ready to deliver more downpours before exiting Friday night.
Many of the areas that were flooded Wednesday night are under a Level 3 of 4 risk for excessive rainfall through Thursday.
A flood advisory covered the area from just west of Santa Barbara southeast to Malibu until 4 p.m. local time Thursday, where 2 to 6 inches of rain had fallen, with 1 to 3 additional inches possible. Santa Barbara was under a flash flood warning until 4 p.m. because of “dangerous flooding,” according to the National Weather Service.
“Flood waters have entered several buildings and homes in the city of Santa Barbara,” the Weather Service wrote. “Multiple streets and highways have been flooded and closed.”
In Oxnard, the Fire Department said “many of the streets and intersections are heavily impacted by flooding,” in a post on X early in the day. “Please stay off the city streets for the next several hours until the water recedes.”
The Weather Service also received reports of flooding in Ventura and Port Hueneme, where evacuations were ordered.
Multiple stretches of Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County were flooded, and a portion of Highway 1 was closed in San Luis Obispo County. Boulders were reported on the road near Chatsworth in Ventura County and near Goleta in Santa Barbara County.
Rain totals thus far
On Thursday afternoon, as the lumbering storm system meandered offshore, slow-moving bands of torrential rainfall focused from around Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita and inland to the Topatopa Mountains. Significant rain also was falling just north of Los Angeles.
The Santa Barbara area has received about 3 to 6 inches of rain. About this much was also reported southward along the coast through Ventura and Oxnard. Areas including Malibu, Long Beach and much of the western Los Angeles metro also received around 2 inches of rain.
In some places, rain had been intense, falling at rates of 1 to 2 inches or higher per hour. A weather station in Oxnard recorded 3.1 inches in one hour Wednesday night, a rate the Weather Service called “extreme.” The average rainfall there for the month of December is just above 2 inches.
Amid the barrage of flooding rain, several tornado warnings were issued near Oxnard on Wednesday night. On Tuesday, the same storm system produced an EF1 tornado near Oroville, Calif., about 60 miles north of Sacramento.
A sampling of 72-hour rain totals in California as of Thursday afternoon include:
- 6.12 inches in Santa Barbara
- 5.32 inches in Ventura
- 4.79 inches in Oxnard
- 4.11 inches in Thousand Oaks
- 4.01 inches in Bel Air
- 3.72 inches in Redding
- 3.54 inches in San Luis Obispo
- 3.01 inches in San Francisco
Even higher totals have come in from the coastal ranges:
- 9.63 inches at East Camino Cielo northeast of Santa Barbara
- 8.62 inches at Three Peaks south of Monterey
- 7.03 inches in Los Alamos northeast of Lompoc
- 6.60 inches at Girard Ridge near Shasta
- 6.31 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco
Significant snowfall totals of about 10 to 24 inches have largely been confined to the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada. Mammoth Mountain at 8,000 feet elevation has reported 9 inches over the past three days with snow continuing.
Storms continued to pummel the region west and northwest of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon as the threat of flooding remained.
“Rainfall rates for the most part will be around .3 to .6 inches per hour but there is a possibility for double those rates under heavier cloud bursts. 1 to 3 inches of additional rain is likely today but there could be more,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.
Waves of showers and thunderstorms were expected to continue Thursday night into Friday morning along the coast from San Diego to Santa Barbara County, including Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties, and inland through western Riverside, far southwestern San Bernardino, southern and western Kern, and southern San Luis Obispo counties.
Showers and storms should then linger Friday afternoon into the evening from around Los Angles toward points east, including San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties, as well as portions of San Bernardino County, with the precipitation finally moving away to the east late Friday night.
A drier stretch follows for at least a few days before rain reenters the forecast later next week.
Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
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