Eaton Canyon Receives 3½ Feet Of Rain In Our 4th Wettest Winter On Record

For only the fourth time in recorded history, Eaton Canyon has picked up over 42” of rain in a single winter season. After years of crushing drought and heat, water is once again prevalent in the canyon. Through May 11th, here are the season’s rain totals throughout the canyon:

• Eaton Dam: 42.72”
• Stonehill Neighborhood: 41.44″
• Henninger Helipad: 42.15″
• Inspiration Point: 45.04″
• Camp Hi-Hill: 60.24”

All of this water has helped the canyon turn lush and green for the summer season. Eaton Canyon is technically classified as having a Mediterranean climate. However, much of the vegetation here is more representative of a semi-arid desert thanks to the infrequently but heavy nature of winter storms. Water is not a common occurrence in the park, and so the next few months will be a very unique ecological period for the canyon with water readily available in the creek.

Water in the wash is expected to stick around nearly all summer, and it may be until July before the first crossing even dries up. The waterfall will still have a decent amount of water in it come November, unlike recent years where it was reduced to a trickle. It has rained on 62 days since October 1, 2022, which is more rainy days than any year since 2011. Only 6 other years since 1908 saw more rainy days than 2023. None of the infamous years of 2005, 1980, 1969, 1943, and 1939, which all witnessed exceptional flooding within the park, are on that list. Rain totals over an entire winter are not what causes flooding in Eaton Canyon. Instead, it is short bursts of exceptionally high rainfall over a period of hours or days that has sent 10-foot high walls of water through the park in the past. The 2023 winter, while wet, lacked exceptional storms that would’ve caused major flooding within the park. The storms were well spaced out, moderate, and did not contain extreme rain rates. As a result, minimal damage to the park was done. You can read more on this winter’s impacts here.

All of this heavy precipitation inevitably will grow fuels of wildfires later this year. In shrub-like ecosystems like ours, it is actually years with heavy rains that can see the most extreme wildfires. The extreme wildfire years of 2017, 2018, and 2020 in Southern California were not exceptionally dry years.