In just one day, Tropical Storm Hilary blew past daily rainfall records across Southern California, replacing a typically balmy August day with many, many inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The daily rainfall records this time of year are typically quite low, weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson said. Sunday’s dumping easily surpassed rainfall records for every Aug. 20 since the weather service started tracking the data in 1877, he said.
“Odds are you’ll see the same thing today,” Thompson said Monday morning. “The numbers won’t be quite as impressive in terms of breaking the records. Yesterday was just smashing them across L.A. and Ventura counties, just obliterating them!”
Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday received 2.99 inches of rain, far surpassing its previous record of 0.03 inch. Los Angeles International Airport got 2.54 inches and Long Beach Airport reported 2.62 inches, compared with their previous records of “a trace” of rain, Thompson said. Burbank received 3.28 inches, compared with its previous record of .01 inch, and Palmdale reached 3.93 inches, compared with .05 inch.
The Southern California mountains also set records with an impressive 8.56 inches in Mt. Wilson, according to the weather service. Other record-breaking totals were reported in Lewis Ranch, which recorded 7.04 inches of rain; Leona Valley and Crystal Lake, both of which recorded 6.97 inches; and Mt. Baldy tallied 5.84 inches.
Here are some other rainfall records:
L.A. County coast and metro area
- Hollywood Reservoir: 4.92 inches
- Beverly Hills: 4.8 inches
- Leo Carrillo: 4.39 inches
- Bel-Air: 4.14 inches
- Culver City: 3.65 inches
- Santa Monica: 3.56 inches
- Redondo Beach: 2.47 inches
- Hawthorne: 2.24 inches
San Fernando Valley
- Van Nuys: 4.7 inches
- La Cañada Flintridge: 4.52 inches
- Northridge: 4.47 inches
- Calabasas: 3.98 inches
- Porter Ranch: 3.96 inches
- Agoura Hills: 3.95 inches
- San Rafael Hills: 3.81 inches
- Burbank: 3.56 inches
- Canoga Park: 3.51 inches
- Chatsworth Reservoir: 3.02 inches
- Hansen Dam: 2.29 inches
San Gabriel Valley
- Morris Dam: 5.76 inches
- East Pasadena; 5.74 inches
- Eagle Rock Reservoir: 4.7 inches
- Sierra Madre: 4.45 inches
- Claremont: 4.04 inches
- La Verne: 4.01 inches
- Alhambra: 3.6 inches
- Whittier: 2.81 inches
- Pasadena: 2.4 inches
- Mt. Olive High School, Duarte: 1.96 inches
Santa Clarita Valley
- Saugus: 6.46 inches
- Newhall: 5.71 inches
- Castaic Junction: 5.47 inches
- Del Valle: 5.26 inches
- Castaic: 4.51 inches