For only the ninth time in 116 years of record keeping, back-to-back wetter than average winters have occured in this part of Southern California. The mood in mid-January 2024 was bleak as only 3.00″ of rain had fallen for the entire water year so far. However, as expected, the months of February and March can not and should not be counted out. After a behemoth atmospheric river and a series of moderate storms in February, the 2023-2024 water year is officially above average in Eaton Canyon as of March 2nd! The annual average rainfall is 19.60″.
Despite the February 4-7, 2024 atmospheric river being so powerful in Los Angeles County, no appreciable flooding of any magnitude occurred in Eaton Wash. The over 8.00″ of rain that fell in the single storm was not even enough to move a log people had been using a bridge across the first crossing since winter 2023. The reason why was because rain rates failed to reach even 1.00″ / hr in the canyon, and with 30 years of vegetation growth since the last wildfire, soils were pretty capable of soaking everything up.
