Los Angeles Sees Unusual September Rains From Remnants of Hurricane Linda; Water Rescues Reported on L.A. River

Chris Dolce
Published: September 15,2015



 
An unusual September soaking moved into the Los Angeles metro area Tuesday morning, partially due to the remnant low-level moisture of former eastern Pacific Hurricane Linda.
The steady rain led to three water rescues on the rain-swollen L.A. River, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a tweet. They noted that all water rescues were complete as of 9:40 a.m., local time.

View image on Twitter

Follow

LAFD Conversation @LAFDtalk

#LAFD #SwiftWaterRescue hard at work today. 2 rescues complete, 1 in progress with reports of possibly more.

11:48 AM - 15 Sep 2015

• 17 17 Retweets
• 10

In addition, apartments were evacuated in a three-story building in West Hollywood after water entered the roof, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials told The Associated Press.
Los Angeles received 2.39 inches of rain as of 6:27 p.m. PDT Tuesday, making it the second wettest September day on record at the downtown observation station where records date back to 1877. Average rainfall for the entire month of September is just 0.24 inches.
(MORE: L.A. Forecast and Radar)

Top Three Wettest September Days in Los Angeles

Date	Total
Sept. 25, 1939	3.96"
Sept. 15, 2015	2.39" (through 6:27 p.m. PDT)
Sept. 24, 1986	1.95"

Tuesday's rainfall also made it the wettest day in more than two years in Los Angeles. The last time more than 2 inches of rain was reported downtown in a single day was Feb. 28, 2014, when 2.24 inches of rain was measured.

Infrared satellite imagery showing the batch of rain (green shadings) moving into Southern California Tuesday morning. Los Angeles is circled in the image. (NASA)

For a time on Tuesday, the National Weather Service had issued a flood advisory for the rainfall, saying that localized flooding of intersections and low-lying areas was possible. The advisory has since been allowed to expire as rain tapered off.

Map showing traffic conditions in the Los Angeles area late Tuesday morning around 10:40 a.m. EDT. Yellow triangles are CHP/CHIN incidents at that time. (CA DOT)

The traffic conditions map from California's DOT showed heavy traffic and numerous incidents on highways around the Los Angeles area on Tuesday morning.

Rain falls on a brown lawn in Los Angeles Tuesday morning. (Credit: Kirstin Wilder)

September 2015 now joins several other strong El Niño years that were wetter-than-average in Los Angeles, according to weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman. This includes September 1997, 1982, 1965 and 1939. September 1983, which was just after the 1982-83 strong El Niño, was also wetter-than-average. A developing El Niño in 1986 also had above-average rainfall in September.
(MORE: Strong El Niño Has Arrived)
The remnant moisture from Linda was pulled inland by a jet stream dip that has moved south along the West Coast, leading to much cooler conditions compared to this past weekend and last week. Los Angeles had seen eight straight days in the 90s through Sunday. Linda dissipated on Sept. 10, but its remnants continued to move northwest in the Pacific before moving inland on Tuesday.
(MORE: Weather Pattern Change This Week)
Interestingly, while the rain was ongoing in Southern California, water vapor imagery showed very dry conditions aloft, indicating the moisture was mainly confined to lowest levels of the atmosphere.

MORE: Destructive Northern California Wildfires in September 2015