After a series of destructive wildfires, Southern California is expecting a much-needed break from the dry conditions with the arrival of rain. However, officials are warning of the potential for landslides and mudflows in burn scars. The region has experienced extreme wind gusts and dangerously low humidity levels, prompting public safety power shutoffs in an effort to prevent wildfires.
After a day of strong winds that fueled small, scattered fires across Southern California, a glimmer of hope for wildfire risk reduction is on the horizon. A small amount of rain is predicted for the region beginning late Friday through early Saturday, a welcome change for an area enduring a prolonged dry spell that has ignited deadly and destructive fires. Los Angeles County, particularly hard hit by the Palisades and Eaton fires this month, anticipates under a third of an inch of rainfall.
However, eastern San Gabriel Mountains and other locations might receive slightly higher amounts, according to Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. 'It's definitely going to be very welcome to get some moisture,' Lewis said. 'While it probably won't be enough to end the fire season, it will certainly help a little.'\While a light rainfall would benefit the dry conditions, excessive precipitation could trigger mudflows and landslides within burn scars. 'I normally pray for rain. God knows we generally need it,' said Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes Pacific Palisades. 'The burn scar of the Palisades fire isn't just feet from the ocean, but sits on hillsides already prone to sliding, which have already absorbed a tremendous amount of water from firefighting, broken pipes, and melted pools.' 'Adding water to this situation and saturated, unstable hillsides is the last thing we need, but we already know at some point it's going to happen,' Park added. \On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order to reinforce burn areas and prevent the flow of toxic debris in anticipation of the incoming rain. The city's Public Works Department will install barriers, remove debris, and divert runoff from the stormwater system into the sewer system for treatment in the coming days. 'This is to prevent further damage to areas already ravaged by fire and also to protect our watershed, beaches, and ocean from toxic runoff,' Bass said during a news conference Tuesday. Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the weather service, stated that an upper low accompanying this rain event can sometimes create instability and trigger higher rainfall totals. However, the likelihood of that happening over the Palisades is very low. 'I mean, it would have to be just, like, the worst of luck,' Wofford said. 'First of all, we'd have to get some convection and it would have to form just in the right area.' The rain would also have to fall at a rate much faster than expected for a landslide to occur. When intense rain falls rapidly, the soil absorbs water quickly and eventually reaches a saturation point where it can no longer hold moisture, triggering instability. 'If a quarter-inch fell in 30 seconds then, yes,' Wofford said of the potential for landslides. 'But if it falls over hours then it's definitely not an issue.'\As the region prepares for rain, the National Weather Service's warning of a 'particularly dangerous situation' with extreme wind gusts ended Tuesday morning for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. This marked the fifth time the weather service issued an alert this season for acute fire conditions. A red flag warning remains in effect until 10 p.m. Tuesday, but forecasters anticipate the strongest winds from this event have passed. A gust of 88 mph was recorded Monday morning in the western San Gabriel Mountains at Magic Mountain Truck Trail. Wind gusts reached 70 mph in the Santa Susana Mountains on Monday afternoon, Lewis said. Winds are expected to increase slightly Wednesday night into Thursday, but they're not anticipated to be as strong as the last Santa Ana event. Dry conditions will persist until the rain over the weekend, according to the weather service. Humidity levels in the Eaton fire area were 3% Tuesday morning, said James White, a meteorologist working on the fire. 'It's almost impossible to be drier than that,' he said. A fire weather watch will remain in effect from Tuesday evening through Thursday evening, with forecasters warning of Santa Ana winds and very low relative humidity for large parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Relative humidity levels are expected to remain low — between 5% to 10% — across most of the area in the coming days, White said. Thousands of people across Southern California were without power on Tuesday as Southern California Edison implemented public safety power shutoffs aimed at mitigating wildfire risks in areas where utility equipment could spark a fire. Roughly 9,200 SCE customers in Los Angeles County are without power, and another 45,800 customers are under consideration for such power shutoffs
WILDFIRES RAIN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SANTA ANA WINDS MUDFLOWS LANDSLIDES PUBLIC SAFETY POWER SHUT-OFFS NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURN SCARS HUMIDITY RELATIEV HUMIDITY
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