LA’s rainfall total is 216 percent of normal right now

Wet winter storms that pounded Southern California over the last few days are helping Los Angeles shatter records and boost rainfall totals to impressive levels, pushing way past the measurements typically taken in late January.

The National Weather Service said today that Downtown Los Angeles has received 216 percent of its normal rainfall to date. Normally, from October 1 to now, about 6 inches of rain falls in LA. This year, we’ve had 13 inches in that time period.

These last few storms—three hit in a row—are not typical for LA.

“It’s not a normal event,” Brett Albright, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in San Diego, told the Los Angeles Times. “It was definitely a culmination of the perfect circumstances: We had a very intense atmospheric river with a lot of moisture and an area of lift in the atmosphere right over coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties. It forced all of that moisture out.”

Last month was the wettest month LA has had in years, and this trio of storms brought such solid rains to Southern California that Downtown has already reached the normal rainfall total for April. It usually takes until April for us to get this much rain.

Record rainfall levels were measured yesterday at LAX and Long Beach Airport. Long Beach Airport saw 3.97 inches of rain, breaking the 1967 record of 2.06 inches. LAX received 2.94 inches of rain—breaking a 1983 record of 1.94 inches.

• Drenched: How L.A. went from bone-dry to 216% above average rainfall in four months [LA Times]
• 5 things to know about the massive storm headed to California [Curbed LA]
• This month has been Downtown LA’s wettest in six years [Curbed LA]