Parts of the Los Angeles Region saw light rain this week as a slight chance of thunderstorms brought the possibility of the next thunderstorm, according to the National Weather Service.
There’s a 10 percent chance of rain across Los Angeles County Tuesday night, but that chance shows as it drops to less than 5 percent, said Carol Smith, a meteorologist at Oxnard Weather.
Interior valleys and southern mountains are likely to see rain, he said, with a slight chance of rain in the valleys and on the coast.
Conditions will not come close to the strong winds and winds in Los Angeles County that occurred last week.
However, there is a small chance of thunderstorms, especially in the mountainous areas of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, which could continue into Los Angeles County near the grapevine area of the 5 freeway, Smith said.
Those areas saw dry lightning during the storm. Weather occurs when there is dry air near the ground during thunderstorms and can bring fire hazards.
“Any part of the development has updates and flowers, and you get these seeds that rain when there’s enough moisture,” Smith said. “But if you don’t have a lot of moisture and really dry air in the lower atmosphere, it just pops up.”
That leads to Virga, which is rain that seems to fall from a cloud but appears before it reaches the ground. If Virga occurs along with dry lightning, there is a risk of wildfires, he said. However, Smiti also wrote that the chance of dry lightning was low. Also, experts say last week’s rain dampened the fire threat, at least temporarily.
The potential midweek moisture likely won’t change the dry weather patterns forecast for the coming winter months, Smith said.
In early October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that La Niña conditions had officially returned. Weather patterns often drive drought conditions in Southern California.
Meteorologists say that the previous La Niaña, which lasted from January to April, played a major role in the dry winter of the region, celebrating the fires that destroyed the palisades and communities of Altadena.
As La Niña returns, Southern California continues to be at high risk of fire and severe drought, according to the US drought.
Last week, a storm hit Los Angeles with scattered wreckage, fears of flooding and high winds.
Evacuation warnings have been issued for areas affected by January’s wildfires – including burning scars from two wildfires, the Eaton fire in Altadena, the wildfire in Sylmar and the Sun fire in the Hollywood Hills.
Last week’s storm dumped about 2.17 inches in Bel-Air, 2.10 inches in Beverly Hills, 1.27 inches in Downtown Los Angeles and 3.28 inches in Woodland Hills. The last time Downtown received more than an inch of rain in one day was in October 2009, said John Dumas, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The storm also brought enough moisture to southern California’s drought-prone state to delay fire season for weeks, if not months, according to Marty Ralph, UC San Diego’s Ocealogy hydrologist.
