November 21, 1967: Worst Rain To Hit Los Angeles In Nearly 30 Years

At the time, it was the worst siege of wet weather to hit the Los Angeles area in nearly 30 years, and on November 21st, 1967, a total of 7.93 inches had fallen in a three-day span.

Image by the NOAA Central Library Data Imaging Project.

Moist air had been propelled into the area from an erratic low pressure system that was meandering off the coast. One of the series of storms that moved onshore turned violent in nature, as lightning illuminated the sky nearly constantly. Transformers were hit by the lightning, causing major power outages throughout the metropolitan area.

Flood waters from runoffs quickly swamped the storm drains and backed up into many homes and businesses, and turned many streets into rapid-flowing rivers. Trapped motorists had to quickly climb on top of their vehicles and await for someone to rescue them. Mudslides in the hills were caused by the immense amount of the rainfall.

In San Diego, 0.51 inches fell within a 10-minute span, the greatest 10-minute rainfall on record in the region. Just two days prior, 1.87 inches fell in one hour in Los Angeles, setting the record for the greatest one hour rainfall on record.

In the mountains just above Los Angeles, over 14 inches of rain fell during the 3-day storm event, stranding over 400 people in the mountains due to closed highways. A grand total of 21 deaths were blamed on the storm, with most of these occurring in traffic accidents due to the storm.

Easily this was the biggest storm to hit the Los Angeles area since a five-day storm hit the region from February 28th to March 3rd, 1938, when 11.06 inches soaked the city.

Category: ALL POSTS, Met 101/Weather History