Los Angeles Weather Brings Drought-Buster, Floods, Mudslides

Forget the old hit song “It Never Rains In Southern California,” because the first drops in a long overdue Los Angeles weather pattern are unleashing a torrent in the worst drought recorded in the last 100 years.

According to ABC7 News the first strong storm of the rainy season brought light to moderate rain across Southern California Tuesday morning, with heavier rainfall still on the way through Thursday.

While it may not sound like a lot as Los Angeles weather patterns go, the SoCal zones are bracing for one to two inches of rain along the coast and two to five inches in the foothills and mountain areas by Wednesday. Widespread flooding may cause big problems for millions of people who live in the Los Angeles drought-stricken areas.

Los Angeles weather has gone from record-breaking highs last summer to thousands of acres of land being scorched by wild-fires. The loss of trees and vegetation coupled with baked earth is a perfect formula for mudslides and flooding. National and Los Angeles Weather Service forecasters have issued flash flood watches for recent burn areas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The City of Los Angeles offered up to 25 free sandbags to residents to help them prepare for the flooding, which can sometimes be minimized with strategic placement of the sandbags.

Silverado Canyon residents are on standby to evacuate the area if necessary. The canyon was recently scarred by fire making the area fragile to heavy rainfall because of mudslides.

NBCNews4 reports that evacuations and flash flood watches are underway for parts of the Los Angeles weather area, which is having rock slides as a result of heavy rainfall. The giant Pacific storm has slammed into the area dumping up to five inches of precipitation from Mexico to Oregon.

In a world that has had catastrophic and epic weather patterns during the last decade, the west coast is no stranger to disaster. The Inquisitr reported about the serious fault-lines that run along the coastline that are destined to really shake things up in the future.

Storm watches were also issued for Sierra Nevada, where a majority of California’s water supply is normally stored as snow pack. The accumulations of rain dropped by the giant Pacific storm are good but not enough to be a major drought buster. Los Angeles weather is still on hold and residents are destined to keep singing that song.

[Image courtesy Nick Ut, AP]