| (Feb. 18, 2017 from continuing coverage Feb. 17, 2017) -- LBREPORT.com readers saw it coming on our front page and with an alert sent on our at this link.: embedded in an extended area of moderate to heavy rain that had already pummelled Long Beach for several hours, an intense area of rain (red level) was on a track to slug L.A. County's second largest city.
The National Weather Service monitor at LB Airport had already recorded rain at a rate of nearly a third of an inch per hour for two hours, followed by another inch of rain within one hour...and then the extremely strong rain cell arrived. Thin but wide, it passed across virtually the entire city, traveling from southwest to northeast. [Scroll down for further.] |
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In the 4 p.m. hour, the National Weather Service issued a Special Marine Warning. Shortly before 5 p.m., the agency issued a Flash Flood Warning extending from Long Beach inland toward Los Angeles.
Within an eight minute period from 4:45 p.m. to 4:53 p.m., LB Airport recorded 0.37" inches of rain (a rate of roughly 2.5" per hour), and over the next 18 minutes, another 0.52" fell, producing 0.89" between 4:45 p.m. and 5:11 p.m. (a rate of nearly 2.0" per hour). Hourly totals (source: National Weather Service monitor at LGB, roughly at the city's center)
In other words, Long Beach was hit by 2.26" of rain within a four hour period between 1:53 p.m. and 5:53 p.m. Calculated within different time frames: between 3:53 p.m. and 6:53 p.m. = 1.77", and between 3:53 p.m. and 9:53 p.m. = 2.04" Less than a month ago on Jan. 22, 2017, LB Airport received 0.55" of rain for one hour, followed by two hours of 0.96" in each hour, for a total of 2.47" of rain within 3 hours.
The Feb. 17 intense downpour left many streets with water from curb to curb, in some cases creeping onto sidewalks in neighborhoods across the city. Some drivers found themselves stranded (towing required) at Clark Ave./Los Coyotes Diagonal/Stearns St. and in the area of Spring St./605 freeway. Part of the 405 freeway in Long Beach was flooded in the area of Lakewood Blvd./Spring St. Parts of Willow Street between Bellflower Blvd. and Palo Verde Ave, also had high water, stranding some drivers. Trees were downed in multiple neighborhoods by 20-30 mph winds, which sent palm fronds flying along parts of Ximeno Ave. between Los Coyotes Diagonal and PCH.
At late afternoon, the City closed all Long Beach parks citywide due to falling trees and tree limbs. Photo below shows one casualty in El Dorado Park.
In some neighborhoods, trees fell onto power lines, triggering neighborhood power outages.
Once the unusually strong cell passed, most streets began draining fairly quickly...but some still had water at higher than normal levels into the 6:00 p.m. hour and in some cases beyond. By way of context, this was a region-impacting deluge. It left at least four people dead in So. Cal.
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