'POLAR EXPRESS' WET WEATHER SETS RECORDS, CLOSES GRAPEVINE.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer The ``polar express'' delivered another drenching drenching farmer's term for the administration of medicines as solutions or suspensions in water by mouth with a drench bottle, gun or funnel. drenching bit to be included in a bridle as a bit. storm to Southern California on Monday, flooding streets across the region with record rainfall and closing Interstate 5 from Castaic through the Grapevine with blizzard conditions. And there's a lot more to come with one storm after another slowly chugging down from the north likely to keep the area soaked for days while creating treacherous traffic conditions. ``We're breaking records,'' said Bill Patzert, climatologist cli·ma·tol·o·gy n. The meteorological study of climates and their phenomena. cli  ma·to·log at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation).Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena. ``We're sitting right here, on Jan. 3, we're at about 3 1/2 times our normal rainfall ... That's really unusual. ``There's another one coming in Thursday, same critter. This pattern could lock in for the next two weeks.'' The latest ``polar express'' storm left Los Angeles with more rainfall so far this season than it usually gets all year. By morning, the Civic Center station There are at least three rail stations with the name Civic Center Station:
The latest deluge - which included afternoon hail - followed a record- breaking December that saw more rain than any time since 1889, officials said. Showers are expected tonight and Wednesday with a major storm likely to wallop the region Thursday night or Friday, followed by another one Sunday. The cold, slow-moving storm brought twice as many crashes on Los Angeles County freeways during Monday morning's rush-hour commute and shut down the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. at the Grapevine all day because of two feet of snow. Two men died in separate traffic crashes in Toluca Lake and Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe Springs, city (1990 pop. 15,520), Los Angeles co., SW Calif., inc. 1957. The city lies in an oil and natural gas region and has diversified manufacturing. , the California Highway Patrol reported. A lane flooded on the southbound San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405, and the part of Interstate 5 south of the El Toro Y[1]) is one of the principal north-south highways in Southern California, and the major beltway of I-5 running through Southern California. at Nordhoff Street, a boulder closed Malibu Canyon Road for part of the day and a landslide advisory remained in effect as Southern California hillsides, saturated after days of rain, were primed to let loose. Late Monday, snow fell on parts of the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. near Agua Dulce. Construction projects ground to a halt across the region, potentially delaying schedules on key projects such as the Valley's new Orange Line busway. What seems like days of rain has actually been a series of storms that start just after the previous one has finished, dropping nearly 9 inches of rain on Los Angeles last month - when December typically sees just 2 inches. Experts blamed a weak El Nino weather system for the storm system. El Nino usually brings wetter winters with storms that come from the tropics tropics, also called tropical zone or torrid zone, all the land and water of the earth situated between the Tropic of Cancer at lat. 23 1-2°N and the Tropic of Capricorn at lat. 23 1-2°S. and move quickly through the area. But the weak system now in place has allowed a cold jet stream to come down from the Gulf of Alaska Noun 1. Gulf of Alaska - a gulf of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago Pacific, Pacific Ocean - the largest ocean in the world and park off the coast. ``There's been a very mild El Nino for several months, the warm surface temperatures are kind of hanging in there, but they're just not very impressive as compared to the '97-'98 El Nino,'' said David Neelin, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. . ``It's been not an El Nino to write home about.'' Patzert said that with a weak El Nino, the jet stream takes on a life of its own Memory Burn A Life Of Its Own was released by Noise Kontrol in 2002. Memory Burn is made up of several high profile musicians who came together to create this special work. , becoming the dominant force that leads to the long series of cold rainstorms - which he dubs the ``polar express.'' ``We thought the El Nino would provide us with some discipline. When El Nino disappeared, the polar jet stream started to dominate. The tropical influence disappeared and the polar express keeps delivering,'' he said. ``What we had was these lows that cut off from the jet stream and meander meander Extreme U-bend in a stream, usually occurring in a series, that is caused by flow characteristics of the water. Meanders form in stream-deposited sediments and may stack up upstream of an obstruction, resulting in a gooseneck or extremely bowed meander. down the coast slowly. Because they stick around so long, they just keep dropping rain. ``Like a relative that sticks around from the holiday and just won't go home.'' The pattern is much like the winter of 1889-90 when October and December records for rainfall were set. October and December 2004 have been the wettest since then. Dec. 28 gave L.A. its third-wettest day on record after March 2, 1938, and Jan. 26, 1956, Patzert said. Monday broke records with Chatsworth getting 1.74 inches of rain, more than the 0.43 of an inch that set the record in 1965. Los Angeles International Airport “LAX” redirects here. For other uses, see LAX (disambiguation). “KLAX” redirects here. For other uses, see KLAX (disambiguation). Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX got 1.31 inches, compared with the record of 0.75 set in 1995, and Camarillo had 1.62 inches compared with the record of 1.03 set in 1977. Still, record-keepers say the deluge doesn't match the nine consecutive days of rain Los Angeles saw in February 1980 or January 1969. ``I don't think we're anywhere near that. That's one of those things, 10 days of rain we could do it,'' said Bruce Rockwell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. ``Now maybe later on in the week we could start getting into that record.'' San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. roofers said their phones have been ringing constantly. ``We're swamped. We're getting about 300 calls a day,'' said Kathy Romero, office manager for Sylmar-based Royal Roof Co. ``We have nine phone lines and they're all lit up, all day long. Why people don't do this in the summertime, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. .'' Still, for all the havoc the rain can cause, climatologists say water is a good thing for thirsty Southern California, which had been entering its seventh year of drought. While the average annual rainfall now is 15.14 inches, it was 18 inches during the El Nino years between 1982 and '90. Los Angeles had only 4.42 inches of rain in 2001-02 - 29 percent of normal and the driest year on record. ``Here's the good news: We need the rain,'' Patzert said. ``Although we're not out of the drought, every little drop is a good drop.'' Some 80 percent of the rainwater merely washes out to the ocean during these pounding storms, rather than helping refill reservoirs and aquifers. ``It takes a long time to get into a drought and a long time to get out of it,'' Patzert said. Staff Writers Andrea Cavanaugh and Kerry Cavanaugh contributed to this story. Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos, chart Photo: (1 -- color) Todd Moss shovels snow from around Daniel Salazar's car, which was stuck in Gorman. Heavy snow closed Interstate 5 over the Grapevine on Monday. (2 -- color) Dangerous conditions prompted the California Highway Patrol to shut down Interstate 5 from Castaic to Grapevine Road. (3 -- color) A rockslide closed Malibu Canyon Road on Monday while crews cleaned the debris off the roadway. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer Chart: RAINFALL TOTALS SOURCE: National Weather Service Gregg Miller/Staff Artist |
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