From fire alerts to flood watches: Rain brings relief to Southern California firefighters, but with a caveat
Rain was falling across Southern California on Sunday, bringing some relief to thousands of firefighters battling multiple major blazes for nearly a month in the Los Angeles area, but also prompting new threats of floods and mudslides across burn-scarred lands.
A flood watch issued by the National Weather Service is to go into effect at 10 a.m. local time on Sunday for fire-ravaged areas of Los Angeles County, which has been ground zero for the historic firestorms that have leveled thousands of homes and killed at least 28 people since first igniting on Jan. 7.
The flood watch will remain in effect until Monday afternoon in burn-scarred areas left by the Eaton, Palisades, Franklin, Bridge and Hughes fires.
The rain is forecast to be widespread but is expected to be light enough to avoid major flooding. But if a downpour spends enough time over one of the recent burn scars, a debris flow could become an issue.
Rain totals from the storm will mostly range from a half-inch to an inch, allowing for a decent soaking for the first time in months.
Since June 1, Los Angeles has only picked up 0.03 inches of rainfall, which has allowed an extreme drought to develop across the area for the first time in two years.
In addition to rain, higher elevations of Southern California, including the San Gabriel Mountains straddling northern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino counties, are expecting snow, with areas above 4,000 feet getting up to 14 inches of powder.
The rain and snow forecast comes as firefighters continued to battle five active fires on Sunday from Ventura County north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border south of San Diego.
The Palisades Fire, which ignited on Jan. 7 in Los Angeles County's Pacific Palisades, was 84% contained as of Sunday after burning more than 23,000 acres, destroying nearly 7,000 structures and killing 11 people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
The Eaton Fire, which also broke out on Jan. 7 in Pasadena and Altadena, was 95% contained on Sunday after burning more than 14,000 acres, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 17 people.
Other fires still active on Sunday, according to Cal Fire, include the Hughes Fire near Castaic Lake, about 45 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, which was 90% contained after starting on Wednesday and burning more than 10,000 acres of brush land; the Border 2 Fire that broke out Thursday near the San Diego-Mexico border and is 10% contained after burning more than 6,600 acres of wilderness land; and the Laguna Fire, which also started Thursday in Camarillo in Ventura County, which was 98% contained on Sunday after charring 83 acres and prompting a brief evacuation of the California State University Channel Islands.
