“Numerous flooding events are likely” as a result of the storm in Southern California, forecasters warn

USA

A storm system along the California coast will bring excessive rain, thunderstorms and even the possibility of waterspouts or tornadoes through Friday, with the worst conditions expected in Southern California Wednesday afternoon through Thursday.

The storm’s center is forecast to follow the “optimal path” to produce maximum rainfall, meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles wrote early Wednesday morning.

This storm will likely put an exclamation point on what has already been an incredibly wet year for California, where multiple atmospheric rivers buried mountains in snow last winter and a rare tropical storm turned a desert into a lake this summer. This year, downtown Los Angeles has already received nearly twice the average annual rainfall of 16 inches.

Experts believe there is an increased chance of even more abnormally high amounts of rainfall in the state this winter, and this storm is where it starts.

This is what you can expect.

The San Francisco Bay Area will escape significant flooding, with just an inch of rain, most of which will fall Wednesday as the storm drifts south.
Southern California will see the worst of it, with heavy rain beginning Wednesday afternoon and lasting through Thursday. The heaviest rain will fall in San Diego on Thursday.
There is likely a moderate risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to flooding Wednesday and Thursday, including in Santa Barbara and parts of Los Angeles.

“Numerous flooding is likely” across Southern California, forecasters say with the Weather Forecast Center posted on Facebook. Flash flooding is expected, they warned, and debris and mudslides are possible.

Because the storm will move quite slowly, forecasters wrote that this increased rainfall will last much longer than a typical storm. Widespread coastal rain of 5 to 10 centimeters will fall, while higher elevations are expected to see up to 25 centimeters of rain in isolated areas.

Additionally, there is a chance of thunderstorms, along with the remote possibility of small, short-lived tornadoes and waterspouts.

The storm is what’s called a “cutoff low,” meaning the storm has separated from the main weather pattern that would quickly push it eastward, allowing it to instead creep southward along the California coast. It will eventually be pushed eastward into Mexico by the end of the week.