Atmospheric river could bring more rain to Long Beach
More rain is expected across the Southland this weekend, and possibly into next week, with an atmospheric river expected to arrive by Thursday, forecasters say.
Temperatures are expected to rise a few degrees Thursday to next Tuesday, with highs in the mid-60s and lows around 50 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain is expected to arrive as soon as Thursday evening, with the best chance for precipitation on Friday.
Sunday is expected to be partly cloudy but dry, with another storm system directly behind it bringing rain Monday night and into Tuesday, according to the NWS.
Some forecasting models also show a third storm system rolling in late next week, on Thursday, March 16.
The bulk of the rainfall for these storm systems is expected along the Central Coast, north of Santa Barbara, which could see as much as 3 to 6 inches of rain, the NWS said.
And because these systems are warmer, there’s a chance of significant flooding in the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo areas, with snow at lower elevations melting under warm rain, forecasters said.
The snow levels for these storm systems will be around 10,000 feet, much higher than the previous, colder storm, which dropped snow levels to as low as 1,000 feet, with places like Long Beach receiving a significant amount of hail.
So far this rain year, which began Oct. 1, Long Beach has received 13.98 inches of rain, which is about 146% of average for this time of year. Long Beach’s average rainfall for the total rain year is 12.02 inches.
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