During heavy rains safety personnel remind drivers to be more cautious when taking to the road.
Recent rains have caused havoc in the southland, including in areas near Malibu that were impacted by wildfires.
By Mary O’KEEFE
Maybe it’s our drought memory, but it seems we have been receiving an unusual amount of rain in Southern California. But historically that is not the case.
“It is not unusual to have back-to-back storms,” said Bonnie Bartling, weather specialist with the National Weather Service.
The reason it may seem unusual is in past years California was experiencing a drought and the jet stream had not brought many rainstorms to Los Angeles and Ventura counties, she added.
As of midnight on Tuesday, this month’s rain totals in downtown Los Angeles were 3.04 inches compared to last year at this time, which was 1.77 inches. The year-to-date total in the Crescenta Valley area, according to the reading from the Rosemont Middle School weather station as of Wednesday at 1 p.m., was 2.70 inches.
The bulk of the rain will be coming this morning [Thursday]. It is predicted that there will be one-to-four inches of rain this morning, with a half inch of rain per hour. That means commuting to work and dropping students off at school will be even more stressful with many drivers not changing their habit of not budgeting enough time to get to their destination.
When asked what is the number one issue of driving in the rain, Officer Bejar of the California Highway Patrol said, “Speed.”
Accident numbers appear to increase in the Los Angeles area during rainy days. On Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, 2018 there were 15 accident reports taken; during the rain on Nov. 29 there were 31 accident reports taken; and on Dec. 6, another rain day, there were 29.
CHP never records the cause of a collision as due to rain.
“Whenever people ‘spin out’ in the rain it is because they are driving too fast for weather conditions. The person driving is at fault in those types of collisions,” Bejar said.
He added people rarely realize that hundreds of other drivers were traveling in the same direction with the same weather conditions and did not have a collision.
“We always want people to slow down when it is raining,” he said. “Sometimes 65 mph is too fast for certain weather conditions.”
Lt. Smith of the LA County Sheriffs Dept.-Crescenta Valley Station agreed with Officer Bejar that speed is an issue when it rains and advises drivers to slow down.
The rain, of course, will not last. By Friday, the mountain areas may get some showers but not any measurable rain. The next thing Crescenta Valley will face may be winds, including cold Santa Ana winds.
“Normally we think of Santa Anas as hot winds, but we have cold Santa Anas [too],” said Bartling.
Although there are healthy rain totals as of today, that may not last with more dry days than rain in future forecasts.
Rainy Days Signal Time to Slow Down added by CV Weekly on
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