After a dark, stormy Halloween night and lingering showers into Sunday, Southern California is expected to have sunny skies and warmer temperatures this week, especially along its troubled coastline.
A beach hazard warning is in place for coastal areas until 6pm on Monday as gusty westerly winds caused rough seas at the weekend and southern swells developed earlier this week.
Ocean conditions are expected to calm on Tuesday and Wednesday, but an active storm pattern in the North Pacific will produce northwest swells that could impact the coastline starting Thursday and peaking on Saturday, according to forecasters.
The weekend rains brought flood warnings to Ventura, Orange and San Diego counties, but the area was relatively unscathed, with no major flash flooding or mudslide events reported, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service said average rainfall over the weekend ranged from a quarter of an inch to an inch across much of the Los Angeles coast and metro area.
Showers will vary across the Los Angeles County area, with some isolated areas seeing heavier amounts. Rainfall totals in Alhambra, located in the San Gabriel Valley, were about an inch and a half, one of the highest in the Los Angeles basin. The corridor connecting Ventura, Oxnard and Point Mugu State Park was also hit by heavy rain, with half an inch to an inch and a half falling in most areas.
Devin Black, a meteorologist with the Oxnard Weather Service, said that by late Sunday, the rain had stopped in Southern California and “by Thursday we should be back to generally dry conditions with seasonal temperatures.”
After Thursday, weak to moderate Santa Ana winds could bring a low to moderate heat risk into the weekend as a ridge of low pressure develops over the region and inland winds sloping down from the mountains warm the air.
“Heat risk may be more likely near the coast,” Black said.
Temperatures could climb back up to above 80 degrees by the end of the week, said Paul Stewart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.
“It looks like we may have another wet spell next week,” he said.
Stewart said this weekend’s storm did not bring any major new erosion issues, although areas that have been in the news during recent wave events may see some minor impacts.
A quarter to three-quarters of an inch of rain fell over much of the coastal and inland areas of San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties over the weekend, with higher amounts in the mountains. The average rainfall in downtown Los Angeles is 0.7 inches.
Black said it’s uncertain whether wet weather will occur in mid-November, but some weather models are showing it.