The long-promised “monster” storm is delivering as promised – postponing events, canceling commercial flights, closing roads and prompting flash flood warnings.
Around 2 p.m., the California Highway Patrol shut the northbound 101 north of Ventura.
In early afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the Oxnard and Ventura areas effective until 4 p.m. Friday.
The Weather Service also issued a warning that flooding was expected to occur in east Santa Barbara County, at the Rey burn area, Gibraltar Reservoir, Santa Ynez River, Old Man Mountain and Highway 154 near San Marcos Pass. That warning was to be in effect until 3:30 p.m.
The onslaught of severe weather also forced the delay or cancellation of dozens of flights Friday at Los Angeles International Airport.
It’s not clear exactly how many flights were canceled, but United Airlines canceled 10 flights into and out of the airport, and American Airlines reported another 11 canceled by that carrier. Throughout the state, Southwest Airlines has canceled roughly 250 flights, including several at LAX.
In Long Beach, American Airlines canceled two out of three scheduled departures.
In Orange County, several airlines canceled flights out of John Wayne Airport.
And Southwest Airlines said it expects to cancel, delay or divert flights out of Burbank, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Ontario, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.
The storm has begun to close some roads, among them the Point Dume Beach entrance, the Pacific Coast Highway underpass to Zuma Beach and the Zuma exit to Westward Beach Road. That’s according to a tweet posted around by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.
And just before 2 p.m., the California Highway Patrol reported closing the northbound lanes of Highway 101, north of Ventura at La Conchita, because several feet of mud had washed onto the freeway.
By early afternoon, rain amounts were beginning to build in coastal parts of Southern California.
The National Weather Service reported, as of 1 p.m., totals of 1.62 inches in Simi Valley, 1.57 inches in Malibu Canyon, 1.38 inches in Thousand Oaks and 0.81 inch at Oxnard.
The storm is expected to intensify and spread south across Orange County and east into Riverside and San Bernardino counties this afternoon.
And all over the region, people are bracing for the impact.
The foothill community of Duarte ordered a precautionary evacuation of some homes.
Horse racing at Santa Anita Park near Pasadena and Los Alamitos Race Course at Cypress was canceled for Friday.
Pasadena called off Saturday’s annual Black History Month parade, citing public safety concerns, including possible lightning strikes.
Golfers at the PGA tour’s annual stop at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades were resigning themselves to getting in only a few holes before the storm hit.
Knott’s Berry Farm was closed Friday in anticipation of heavy rains and wind, while Disneyland remained open as of mid-day.
Disney officials said they were monitoring the storm. Disneyland closed a few hours early during the Jan. 22 rain storm, with certain parts of Disneyland flooding. There have been other cases in the past that heavy rains forced the Anaheim theme park to close early.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works warned of possible debris and mud flow potential forecast in the Sand fire area of the Angeles National Forest, in Pacoima and Little Tujunga Canyons. The department said the Santa Clarita also is vulnerable.
Areas up and down the coast were bracing for waves forecast to reach 9 feet Friday and 15 feet on Saturday.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, Snow Valley Mountain Resort near Running Springs decided not to operate five chair lifts over concerns about wind, spokesman John Brice said. And the resort canceled night skiing in the face of possibly being buried by 29 inches of snow.
Skies remain dark this afternoon with monster potential. And on virtually everyone’s minds were those crazy numbers we’ve been hearing: 2 to 6 inches of rain in coastal and valley areas, 5 to 10 inches in foothills and mountains, and up to 3 feet of snow above 8,000 feet.
“It looks ominous,” said Bill Patzert, climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
“It’s a pattern that we’ve seen pretty much since the beginning of the year, where you have a strong polar jet stream swooping out of the North Pacific,” Patzert said. “And what it’s doing is dragging a low pressure system. It’s pretty intense and it’s definitely taking aim at the Southland.”
And it’s clashing with a Pineapple Express-style plume of moisture barreling in from the west.
“It’s another one of these atmospheric river events that originates in the subtropics at about Hawaii,” Patzert said.
The result? Copious rainfall. Crazy wind. Crippling snowfall.
“It’s definitely not like ‘Singing in the Rain’ with Gene Kelly,” Patzert said.
No, it’s not the work of El Niño, which turned out to be a bust last winter – at least for the southern part of the state. And the dry La Niña we thought was coming but fizzled out isn’t holding the moisture back, Patzert said.
The absence of both, he said, “has really opened the door for these cold storm events coming out of the north colliding with atmospheric rivers. It’s this type of set-up that has brought some of our wettest winters.”
Staff writers Cynthia Washicko and Stephanie K. Baer, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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