Hail storm surprises and delights Los Angeles as first rain of season begins to fall
Hail pelted parts of the Los Angeles area Wednesday morning as the first storm of the season rolled through Southern California following months of dry weather and wildfires in the region.
Videos and photos on social media showed delighted spectators surveying the solid pellets of frozen rain that blanketed the ground, with hail reported in Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“This is a fast-moving storm, and the rains are scattered,” said Tom Fisher, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Oxnard, according to the Times. “Any showers overhead will be moving fast.”
Snowfall was forecast Wednesday and Thursday in the Los Angeles County Mountains, KTLA reported, with “the eastern San Gabriel Mountains expected to receive up to 6 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters issued a winter weather advisory effective 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 p.m. Thursday for Acton, Mount Wilson, Sandberg, and other L.A. County mountain communities, excluding the Santa Monica Mountains.”
Forecasters said high peaks could be hit with as much as 16 inches of snow, according to KTLA.
The National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office warned people in areas experiencing roadway flooding not to risk driving through standing water.
Forecasters also warned about lightning strikes.
“Dangerous lightning also being observed,” the weather service said on Twitter. “Don’t be the tallest thing out there, when thunder roars go indoors.”
The Associated Press reported that officials “evacuated the Santa Monica Pier and beaches around greater Los Angeles because of lightning strikes” on Wednesday.
The precipitation comes a week after the U.S. Drought monitor said more than 80 percent of California had fallen into abnormally dry conditions and around 4 percent of the state was in moderate drought.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 12:54 PM.
