{"id":110153,"date":"2025-12-27T02:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T02:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/110153\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T02:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T02:01:19","slug":"socal-just-had-its-wettest-christmas-in-half-a-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/110153\/","title":{"rendered":"SoCal Just Had Its Wettest Christmas in Half A Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SoCal
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Jessica Christian on Unsplash.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

Southern California woke up this week to a holiday surprise, and it wasn\u2019t under the Christmas tree. A powerful Christmas storm<\/a> drenched the region, delivering one of the wettest Christmas periods in recent memory \u2013 the wettest in 54 years \u2013 and smashing daily rainfall records from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Freeways flooded, hillsides gave way, and umbrellas became the must-have accessory of Christmas day as the Pineapple Express\u2013driven system poured nearly four inches of rain in some areas. And while the worst has moved on, the rainy weather isn\u2019t quite over yet.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udca7 Record-Breaking Christmas Rainfall Totals <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how much rain fell on Wednesday, and how big some of those records were:<\/p>\n

LAX: 1.88 inches Burbank Airport: 3.39 inches Woodland Hills: 3.96 inches Oxnard: 3.33 inches Santa Barbara: 3.31 inches Anaheim: 1.87 inches <\/p>\n

The downpour flooded roadways, triggered mudslides, and prompted a handful of evacuations<\/a> across the region.<\/p>\n

\u26a0\ufe0f Emergency Declaration <\/p>\n

With soils fully saturated and slopes unstable, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Shasta counties.<\/p>\n

Governor Newsom stated in his Proclamation of Emergency<\/a>, \u201cCalifornia is acting early and decisively to do all we can to get ahead of dangerous winter storms. The state has pre-positioned resources, activated emergency authorities, and we are working closely with local partners to protect communities and keep Californians safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move allows rapid deployment of state resources, support for local governments, and National Guard activation if needed. Officials warn of continued risks of:<\/p>\n

Flooding Landslides Debris flows Rapidly rising creeks and rivers A flood watch remains in effect until Friday afternoon. \ud83d\udedf How to Stay Safe During the Aftermath <\/p>\n

Even though the heavy rain has passed, the ground is saturated and hazards remain. Here are a few ways to stay safe:<\/p>\n

Avoid driving through pooled or moving water \u2014 just 6 inches can sweep a car away Stay away from canyon roads, burn scar areas, and steep hillsides prone to slides Keep an emergency kit handy (flashlight, batteries, bottled water, chargers) Don\u2019t walk near swollen rivers, creeks, or storm drains Check Caltrans QuickMap or local alerts before hitting the road<\/a> If you live near a hillside, monitor for cracks, leaning trees, or unusual runoff \ud83c\udf25\ufe0f What\u2019s Next in the Forecast? <\/p>\n

The core of the storm has moved out, but showers may still linger. By the weekend the rain is expected to taper off and sunshine may return.<\/p>\n

It was the soggiest Christmas in recent memory, but brighter days are ahead, L.A.!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Jessica Christian on Unsplash. Save Southern California woke up this week to a holiday surprise, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9479,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-110153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}