This weekend’s atmospheric river uprooted timber, caked roads in mud and despatched poisonous runoff flowing into the ocean, however nowhere obtained fairly as laborious hit as Santa Barbara, which skilled the soggiest three-day stretch of November rain within the county’s recorded historical past.
In accordance with knowledge from the Nationwide Climate Service, the Santa Barbara Airport obtained 6.67 inches of rain between Friday and Sunday, breaking the situation’s earlier three-day complete set in 2002 when it obtained 5.66 inches.
The downpour was so heavy as a result of it pulled in moisture all the way in which from Hawaii because it rotated, mentioned Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Oxnard.
“As a substitute of rapidly shifting throughout the state, it was allowed to spin proper off of the coast for fairly some time,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, southerly winds pushed the system proper up in opposition to — and perpendicular to — the Santa Ynez Mountains. “It enhances all that rain, principally, when it’s completely perpendicular,” he mentioned. “That’s referred to as the orographic impact.”
This sort of setup tends to occur later within the winter and shouldn’t be typical for this time of yr, Lewis mentioned.
The unusually highly effective storm made for a busy weekend.
The Santa Barbara Metropolis Fireplace Division recorded a roughly 50% enhance in name quantity Friday and Saturday, with spikes in site visitors collisions, flooding and downed timber, mentioned Battalion Chief Jon Turner. Mud and particles fell onto West Mountain Drive and Cliff Drive at La Marina, and flooding compelled the closure of the Mission Avenue underpass and the 101 freeway off-ramps, he mentioned.
The brunt of storm impacts got here round 8 p.m. Saturday, when a few half-inch of rain fell over roughly quarter-hour on floor that already was saturated, flooding low-lying areas and prompting at the least 12 requires service, Turner mentioned. No less than six autos entered floodwaters and stalled out on the intersections of Salispuedes and Cota streets and Cacique and Nopalitos streets, he mentioned. No critical accidents had been reported.
The Climate Service mentioned Saturday ended up being the third-wettest November day on report for the Santa Barbara Airport, the place it obtained 2.9 inches of rain, breaking a each day report of 1.92 inches on the identical date in 1952.
By Monday the storm had been decreased to gentle sprinkles throughout the world. The storm was anticipated to drop 1 to 2 inches by late afternoon or night earlier than shifting to the south and east, into Ventura and Los Angeles counties, Lewis mentioned.
Extra rain is anticipated throughout the Southland with the arrival of two extra storms. The primary is forecast to final from Monday by means of Tuesday, bringing gentle rain that began midmorning Monday. Forecasters predicted as much as one other inch of rain from the storm.
The second storm probably will hit within the later half of the week. The climate service expects gentle to reasonable rain from that occasion however mentioned there was nonetheless “appreciable uncertainty” over the timing and depth of the storm.
Instances employees author Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.
