California Braces for Rain Later This Week

The Los Angeles area is expecting its largest rainfall since March 2012 when two major storms arrive later this week. One is due Wednesday evening and the other is due Friday afternoon. Both are expected to break a local heat wave, dump several inches of rain near the coast, and drop snow on the mountains, according to the Los Angeles Times. There is a danger of local flooding and landslides. Rain will hit the rest of the state as well.

There were a few smaller storms earlier in the month, particularly in northern California, which helped raise the Sierra Nevada snowpack–the source of much of the state’s water–from catastrophically low levels up to merely astonishingly low levels. This week’s storm should provide more relief–and, if rains continue through March, could even rescue California from the direst consequences of what has been, up to now, an historic drought.

Photo: AP/2011