The first in a pair of storms is clearing the Tri-Counties, but it could leave some on and off showers until the second one arrives Thursday.
It’s one down, and one to go. The first one left us a wide range of rain totals.
In Ventura County, Ventura had .48” of rain, Oxnard .61”, Santa Paula .64”, and Thousand Oaks 44” of rainfall.
In Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara had 1.23”, San Marcos Pass 2.75”, Solvang .47”, Lompoc .66”, and Santa Maria .41”.
The heaviest rainfall was in San Luis Obispo County. San Luis Obispo had 1.29”, Arroyo Grandy 3.02”, and Nipomo .51” The wettest spot in the region was Rocky Butte, in the mountains of northwestern San Luis Obispo County, with 5.01” of rainfall.
Between storms, we could see lingering showers.
The second storm is expected to be with us late Thursday into Friday morning. It’s predicted to move through the region quickly, dropping less than an inch of rain, except for the mountains, which could get 2-3”.
The storms have led to the Pacific Coast Highway again being closed between Malibu and Santa Monica. The concern is about mud and debris flows from the storms onto the damaged highway.
That combined with the rain led to huge traffic backups on Highway 101 during the morning commute Wednesday. At one point, drivers reported it took two hours to get from Thousand Oaks to the 101/405 intersection in Sherman Oaks. It’s normally a 30 minute drive when there’s no traffic.
Caltrans officials say they hope to reopen it Friday.
