California Rainfall Totals: L.A. Saw a Historically Wet February

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Last month was the fourth-wettest February in the city’s recorded history. Intense rain in February left the Los Angeles River close to overflowing Credit…Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times […]

T Kauer T Kauer
Mar 2, 2024 - 19:15
California Rainfall Totals: L.A. Saw a Historically Wet February

California Rainfall Totals: L.A. Saw a Historically Wet February thumbnail

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Last month was the fourth-wettest February in the city’s recorded history.

A person with an umbrella looking off a walkway to a flooded river. There are trees sprouting up from the water.
Intense rain in February left the Los Angeles River close to overflowing Credit…Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

Judson Jones

By Judson Jones

Judson Jones is a meteorologist and reporter for The Times.

February was the wettest month in downtown Los Angeles since 1998. With over 12 inches of rain drenching the city, it was the fourth-wettest February — and the seventh-wettest month overall — in the city’s nearly 150-year recorded history.

You can feel the saturation in the soil, Park Williams, a professor and expert in water and drought, said in a phone interview last week as he was walking across the grass at the University of California, Los Angeles.

An astonishing 11 inches of rain fell in just two days in early February across the U.C.L.A. campus, which is tucked closer to the base of the Santa Monica Mountains than the downtown area. According to Dr. Williams’s calculations, that meant 1.1 billion pounds of water fell over the campus those two days.

The downtown area, a little farther east, received seven inches during that same period of time. A normal amount for the entire month of February is just under five inches for U.C.L.A. and four in downtown.

Image

Overall, more than 17 inches of rain fell in Los Angeles from Dec. 1, 2023, through the end of February. Credit…Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Read More