This report says this rain storm, (Feb. 4-6, 2024) is the third wettest two-day rainfall since records have been kept, which began in the 1870's. The report earlier today was that 307 mudslides had been reported in the Los Angeles area. That total is now up to 475 mudslides and counting. Taking a bus through The Valley today, skirting the hills (aka Santa Monica Mountains) I saw three really small slides myself, where patches of grass had slid down the hill. These were maybe 8 to 10 feet wide, and 10 to 15 feet long. This storm is dying down, but we're still expecting some more rain for the next two or three days.
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It's 7:00 am, Monday morning, August 21, 2023, as I begin this post. It's the day after Tropical storm Hilary slammed into Southern California, and the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. This is the craziest footage I've seen so far, from Mulege, Mexico. Mulege is on the inland side of the Baja peninsula, on the Sea of Cortes, about 200 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. So it was still a hurricane at that point.
Hurricane Hilary was a Category 4 hurricane at it's peak, in late August of 2023. It downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane about the time is made landfall, on August 20, 2023, on the northern Baja California peninsula. It further downgraded to a Tropical Storm by the time it hit San Diego dead on, and quickly surged north into Orange County, Los Angeles, with particularly heavy rain in the inland desert areas of Southern California. This was the first tropical storm to hit Southern California since 1939, over 80 years earlier.
Officially, there has been only one death from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hilary, and that was a person in Mexico who was trapped in a car that got washed away.
In addition to the Tropical Storm, a 5.1 earthquake hit during the storm, centered southeast of Ojai. I personally felt that earthquake, quite strong, in Sherman Oaks, about 35-40 miles away from Ojai. I felt one or two immediate aftershocks. There were at least 13 earthquakes between 3.0 and 3.9, in the Ojai area, as well as the 5.1 magnitude quake, on Sunday afternoon, (8/20/2023). The hashtag #hurriquake became a thing on social media.
This 19 minute documentary by Jonathan Petralama, below, is amazing, especially considering he put it out on Monday, after the storm. There's footage from the beach area in Orange County and Long Beach, to almost to the Mexican border, and back up to the Palm Springs area, including the Interstate 10 freeway closure. These guys did a great job capturing the effects of Hurricane turned Tropical Storm Hilary as it hit Southern California. Again, this is the first tropical storm to hit SoCal in 84 years.
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