Storms sweep away some records

Scattered rains could continue into Saturday before moving out of region.

- BY RONG-GONG LIN II

BUS riders are ferried along Aliso Street in downtown Los Angeles in the rain.

An unusual series of storms has made this the wettest November on record for swaths of Southern California, dumping as much as 8.9 inches of rain along the coast as of Friday afternoon before a week of dry weather will provide a reprieve through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Scattered light showers are still possible through Saturday, and snow levels will remain near 6,500 feet in elevation in the mountains, the National Weather Service said. But the weather is expected to dry out and warm up through Thanksgiving. Rain could return in the days after Black Friday, however.

Santa Barbara Airport has recorded the wettest November in its record books, which started in 1941, with 8.9 inches of rain falling this month, breaking the record in 1965, when 6.92 inches fell, the National Weather Service office in Oxnard said.

So did Van Nuys, which recorded 5.18 inches of rain this month, about seven times the average for a November; and San Luis Obispo Airport, which recorded 3.69 inches, about 2½ times the average for this month.

Downtown Los Angeles has recorded its fifth wettest November since records began being tracked in 1877, with 5.52 inches having fallen there. The record wettest November for downtown was in 1965, when 9.68 inches of rain fell.

Combined with a robust mid-October storm, the city of Santa Barbara — which has records dating to 1899 — has reported its wettest start to the water year on record. More than 9.5 inches of rain have fallen since Oct. 1, the start of the water year.