BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — RECORD SOCAL RAINFALL
What a day as far as Southern California weather goes! The interaction between a moisture surge coming off of Hurricane Marie and an upper-level trough moving toward California squeezed out a significant amount of rain, breaking numerous records for the date by very large margins. Indeed, early September is still part of the long summer “dry season” so when Sunday’s rain gauges scored totals reminiscent of a good winter storm you know that’s impressive. For example, Pacific Palisades at the coast picked up 1.47 inches. North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley scored 1.42. Southeast Palmdale registered 0.86.
While the brunt of the activity was centered just to the south of Kern County, the Tehachapi Mountains and the deserts did experience several rounds of showers and thunderstorms as well. Mojave picked up 0.23. Edwards got 0.21. Tehachapi saw 0.08″. It’s possible some rural areas could have experienced even more, but without an accurate instrument we can’t know for sure.
QUIETER & WARMER LABOR DAY
Sunday’s dynamic scenario appears to relax based on tonight’s model output, so Labor Day Monday is advertised to be quieter overall. There could be some afternoon clouds and an isolated shower or even thunderstorm can’t be entirely ruled out over the mountains and desert, but the more notable change should be a decent warmup compared to the day before. Low to mid 90s are forecast to return from the South Valley to the desert, with upper 80s across the KRV and low 80s for Tehachapi.
HOTTER & MORE HUMID MID-LATE WEEK
An expanding high pressure along with a bump up in monsoonal/tropical moisture could be the formula of a hot and humid stretch of several days later this week. The most difficult part of this forecast is to pinpoint whether our region will experience an additional increase in clouds or even a chance of shower and thunderstorm activity. Right now, we’ll need to wait and see.
Have a wonderful new week ahead!
Chief Meteorologist Ilya Neyman