Another round of heavy rain is coming to Southern California but forecasters are pushing the timing of the heaviest showers back a bit.
“Your weekend is looking a little bit better than we originally thought,” KTLA’s Henry DiCarlo said Thursday. “We’ll start bringing in some clouds, maybe some rain on Sunday … but hold off any significant rain until Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week.”
The stormy weather is expected to arrive even later, possibly not until Monday morning, for areas of the Inland Empire, Orange and San Diego counties.
When the rain does arrive, the National Weather Service is calling for 2 to 5 inches to fall on the coastal and valley areas of Los Angeles County through Wednesday. Up to 8 inches of rain is possible for some mountain and foothill areas.
“The rain that will blanket California will have all the ingredients for some heavy rainfall amounts,” Henry said. “We have the potential for another 2, 3, possibly 5 inches of rain and that is enough that we could create some problems.”
The potential for the largest amounts of rain depends on whether the storm will tap into the atmospheric river that still sits off the California coast.
A storm that hit the region earlier this month did just that and brought nearly 15 inches of rain to parts of Los Angeles County. All that rain saturated the ground, causing hundreds of mudslides and damaging homes across the Southland.
For the upcoming storm, forecasters are urging residents to prepare for possible power outages and to stay alert for changing road conditions.
High surf along the coast will also bring possible flooding conditions, according to the Weather Service.
Snow levels with this storm are expected to remain rather high with several feet of snow possible above the 7,000 to 8,000-foot mark.