SoCal’s first significant winter storm brings rain, snow and risk of mudslides

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your Monday.

• A winter storm has moved in over SoCal.
• Video adds to the scrutiny of a Southern California Edison tower as the possible site where the Eaton fire started.
• California’s growing need for caregivers could collide with a crackdown on immigrants.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.
  

A ‘stubborn’ storm dumps rain and snow on fire-scarred Los Angeles County

Southern Californians dusted off their umbrellas over the weekend as the wet season’s first significant rainstorm doused the region.

The storm has already brought snow to local mountains, forced the closure of the 5 freeway at the Grapevine, unleashed mud on roadways, and triggered the closure of Malibu’s public schools due to dangerous road conditions.

Here’s what to know as the rain continues Monday morning:

‘Waves of moisture’ bring significant rain and other hazards

Alex Tardy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, described the system as “a slow-moving storm [that’s] going to be stubborn.”

“It’s going to hang around. It’s going to send waves of moisture through Monday,” Tardy told The Times. “So I think that’s really going to add up to significant rain and snow.”

Los Angeles and Ventura counties’ mountains could get 2 to 3 inches of rain through Monday, while some communities in the L.A. Basin could see slightly more than an inch.

“The rain is expected to snap a record, or near-record, streak of dry weather for Southern California,” my colleagues Rong-Gong Lin II, Alex Wigglesworth and Melody Gutierrez reported. “Most areas of the region have received less than 5% of the average accumulated rainfall for this point in the water year, which began Oct. 1.”

Heavy snow is falling in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains. The weather service issued a winter storm warning, alerting residents of hazardous conditions that could make travel “very difficult to impossible.”

In Ventura, some residents shared video of hail — or possibly graupel — blanketing streets and sidewalks.

Communities devastated by fire now face another threat: Mudslides

The weather service said there was a 10% to 20% chance of “significant debris flows” in and around areas scorched by the recent Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires, along with the older Franklin and Bridge fires.

Homes that survived the Palisades fire are seen above a blackened hillside Saturday in Malibu.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The risks are heightened after wildfire because intense blazes burn off vegetation and heat soil, making it repel water. Without being able to seep into the ground, that water flows downhill, pushing mud and possibly rocks, branches, massive boulders and other debris toward foothill communities.

A flood watch was issued Sunday morning and was set to continue through 4 p.m. Monday.

The weather service’s website notes that a flood watch is “issued when conditions are favorable for flooding.”

“It does not mean flooding will occur, but it is possible,” officials wrote.

How can residents in and near burn zones prepare?

Weather service officials say it’s best to avoid those areas if possible and use sandbags to protect property. Residents who decide to stay are advised to stock up on supplies in the event that roads are blocked.

Does this storm mean our dry, fiery season is finally over?

Don’t bet on it, experts warn.

“I think this [rainy] period will very likely be a period of greatly reduced fire risk,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a recent video briefing.

“Once we get back to the end of the first week in February, though, unless it rains again, we’re going to be at the mercy of the winds, because all it will take is one Santa Ana event to evaporate all of this water, and we’ll be right back to where we started.”

And it will take more than one weekend storm to get Southern California out of the “extreme” and “severe” drought conditions that we now face, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest report.

Today’s top stories

Wearing protective gear, Liz Oh and Ray Ahn search for keepsakes and valuables last week amid the rubble of their home on West Marigold Street in Altadena.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. fires

• They waited and waited for an evacuation order. The fire came first, and people died in Altadena.
• Video adds to the scrutiny of a Southern California Edison tower as the possible site where the Eaton fire started.
• Authorities caution against sifting through debris at fire-ravaged properties.
• Wildfires took an Altadena man’s neighborhood and his Corvette dream.

Power and politics

• Mark Z. Barabak: The rise of Silicon Valley, from indifference to lords of the political universe.
• Trump talks “free speech” while moving to muzzle those he disagrees with.
• More DEI fallout: The Air Force has scrapped training courses that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots.
• Trump and Biden add to long, strange history of presidential pardons.

Sundance Film Festival

• Inside a new documentary’s provocative allegations about a famed Vietnam War photo.
• A tearful Michelle Satter, whose home burned in Palisades fire, brings Sundance to its feet.
• At Sundance, a film about wildfire recovery stirs raw emotions: ‘Community is the solution.’
• Mary Bronstein and Rose Byrne talk about their film, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and answer questions about kids being terrible, bad parking jobs and therapy.

What else is going on

• Preemptive power shutoffs that have gone on for days have drawn complaints from Inland Empire residents and politicians.
• The “horrifying” fire at California’s Moss Landing lithium battery storage facility has sparked calls for new clean energy rules.
• Police say a crowd vandalized a Waymo robotaxi in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove neighborhood.
• Kobe remembrances: Readers share thoughts of that tragic day.
• Immigration made homeless numbers worse than they actually were in 2024.
  

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Commentary and opinions

• Trump’s focus on retribution distracts from the nation’s real domestic enemies, columnist Jackie Calmes writes.
• Love letters and perspectives from Angelenos after the fires.
• Robin Abcarian: Does Donald Trump’s return to power mean it’s time to admit he’s right? In a word, no.
• Times Editorial Board: Fires aggravated L.A.’s housing crisis. We need to build homes much faster.
• Opinion: Building safer cities means protecting animals too, not just humans.

This morning’s must reads

A Honduran immigrant, 67, works in L.A. as a caregiver for an elderly woman. She fears her legal status is in jeopardy.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

California’s growing need for caregivers could collide with a crackdown on immigrants. “California estimates that by 2030, a quarter of the state’s population will be at least 60 years old,” Times reporter Emily Alpert Reyes writes. Immigrants make up 28% of the workers who care directly for people in nursing homes and other forms of long-term care, according to a national analysis by the independent research group KFF.”

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

In a long-exposure image, Los Angeles Ballet members perform “Memoryhouse.”

(Los Angeles Ballet)

Going out

• 🩰 Witness “Memoryhouse,” a Los Angeles Ballet performance composed of vignettes honoring those who died during the Holocaust.
• 🎞️ Watch Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending 2010 science-fiction thriller “Inception” in 4K at the Academy Museum.

Staying in

• 📺 Grant Ellis starts his search for love as the second Black lead of “The Bachelor.”
• 🍐 Here’s a recipe for caramel pear crisp.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

(Leeann Agee)

Today’s great photo is from Leeann Agee of Grass Valley: a misty view of Desolation Wilderness in El Dorado County, viewed from Wrights Lake.

Leeann writes:

“My father built a cabin for his family when I was a baby. This has been my favorite place in the world all my life. At 7000’ in the high Sierra Nevada range, it’s rough, unforgiving, enchanting and enticing.”

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Amy Hubbard, deputy editor, Fast Break

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