Drivers and truckers crossing central and Southern California this week should plan for heavy rain, flooded low crossings and possible street flooding, after the National Weather Service issued flood watches covering both regions ahead of a strong October storm.
The NWS office in Hanford issued a flood watch on Tuesday, October 20 at 1:16 p.m. PDT, running from Wednesday morning through Thursday evening (until 8 p.m. Thursday), for a portion of central California that includes Bakersfield, Buena Vista, the Buttonwillow–Lost Hills stretch of Interstate 5, the Frazier Mountain Communities, the Grapevine, the Kern River Valley, Tehachapi, the Mojave Desert slopes and the south end of the San Joaquin Valley. The watch warns of flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall from storms training over the same area, with runoff flooding rivers, creeks and low-lying roads, and specifically urges extra care on Highway 58 between mile markers 101 and 103 near the Borel burn scar. Weather.com also listed a moderate flood watch alert for Bakersfield from Wednesday 8 a.m. to Thursday 8 p.m. PDT.
Further south, MyNewsLA reported, citing the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, that rainfall across much of Los Angeles County is expected to average about 1.5 inches, with 2 to 3 inches possible where terrain enhances rainfall or thunderstorms hit. A separate flood watch covers the Malibu coast and the eastern and western Santa Monica Mountains from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon, including Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Topanga, with rain rates around 0.75 inches per hour possible. Forecasters said flooding could occur in urban and poor-drainage areas, with extensive street flooding and flooding of creeks and rivers possible, and put the chance of a weak tornado at 5% or less as the upper low moves inland late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
The storm follows several days of unusually hot weather and strong Santa Ana winds in Southern California, and temperatures are expected to drop sharply on Wednesday and Thursday before dry weather returns Friday. For Punjabi truckers and other drivers on I-5, the Grapevine and Highway 58 — key freight routes between the Central Valley, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — officials advise monitoring later forecasts and being ready to act if flash flood warnings are issued, and never driving through flooded crossings. (Sources: National Weather Service, Hanford office, flood watch issued October 20, via GovOneStop; MyNewsLA reporting on the NWS Los Angeles forecast; Weather.com alert listing for Bakersfield.)