This weekend’s atmospheric river uprooted trees, caked roads in mud and sent toxic runoff flowing into the ocean, but nowhere got quite as hard hit as Santa Barbara, which saw the soggiest three-day stretch of November rain in the county’s recorded history.
According to data from the National Weather Service, the Santa Barbara Airport received 6.67 inches of rain between Friday and Sunday, breaking the location’s previous three-day rain record total set in 2002 when it received 5.66 inches.
The downpour was so heavy because it pulled in moisture all the way from Hawaii as it rotated, said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
“Instead of quickly moving across the state, it was allowed to spin right off of the coast for quite a while,” he said.
Meanwhile, southerly winds pushed the system right up against— and perpendicular to — the Santa Ynez Mountains. “It enhances all that rain, basically, when it’s perfectly perpendicular,” he said. “That’s called the orographic effect.”
This type of setup tends to happen later in the winter but is not typical for this time of year, Lewis said.
The unusually powerful storm made for a busy weekend.
The Santa Barbara City Fire Department recorded a roughly 50% increase in call volume Friday and Saturday, with spikes in traffic collisions, flooding and downed trees, said Battalion Chief Jon Turner. Mud and debris fell onto West Mountain Drive and Cliff Drive at La Marina, and flooding forced the closure of the Mission Street underpass and the 101 off-ramps, he said.
The brunt of storm impacts came around 8 p.m. Saturday, when about a half-inch of rain fell over roughly 15 minutes on ground that was already saturated, flooding low-lying areas and prompting at least 12 calls for service, Turner said.
At least six vehicles entered floodwaters and stalled out at the intersections of Salispuedes and Cota streets and Cacique and Nopalitos streets, he said. No serious injuries were reported.
The Weather Service said Saturday ended up being the third-wettest November day on record for the Santa Barbara airport, where it received 2.9 inches of rain, breaking a daily record of 1.92 inches on the same date in 1952.
By Monday, the storm had been reduced to some light spinkles across the area. The storm was expected to drop 1 to 2 inches by late afternoon or evening before moving to the south and east, into Ventura and Los Angeles counties, Lewis said.
More rain is expected across the Southland with the arrival of two more storms. The first is forecast to last from Monday through Tuesday, bringing light rain that started midmorning on Monday. Forecasters have predicted up to another inch of rain from the storm.
The second storm will likely hit in the later half of the week. The weather service expects light to moderate rain from that event, but said there was still “considerable uncertainty” over the timing and intensity of the storm.
Times staff writer Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.
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