Winter Storm Headed To Southern California

PALM DESERT -A storm headed for the Southland today, threatening heavy downpours, thunderstorms, waterspouts, flash flooding and mud slides late Friday night and again Saturday, forecasters said.

The lower deserts may be spared the brunt of it, expecting only a trace to a fraction of an inch of rain.

Evacuations may be ordered for communities at risk because of their proximity to slopes stripped bare by wildfire, the Foothills Incident Unified Command — a coalition of emergency response agencies — said in a statement.

Additionally, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said it anticipates closing down county roads within the Station Fire burn area at 4p.m. Friday. Affected by the closures will be Angeles Forest Highway, Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road.

In La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, parking will be prohibited on some streets, according to a county statement.

“This storm system will have the potential bring brief heavy downpours with possible thunderstorms, which could lead to flash flooding and debris flows at recent burn areas,” according to an National Weather Service advisory.

The burn areas in question include the foothill communities below the San Gabriel mountain slopes denuded by last year’s 250-square-mile Station Fire.

The storm, which was over the eastern Pacific today, was expected the reach California’s Central Coast late Friday afternoon and slide south into Ventura and Los Angeles counties overnight and into Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Behind the storm’s main cold front, a cold and unstable air mass will bring the threat of showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms well into Saturday, according to an NWS advisory.

“Any thunderstorms that develop will have the potential to produce brief heavy downpours, gusty winds and small hail,” it said.

The NWS warned that atmospheric conditions will heighten the risk of weak waterspouts across Southern California’s coastal waters — especially across the San Pedro Channel from Huntington beach to the Santa Monica Bay — late Friday night into Saturday.

Rainfall amounts Friday through Saturday are expected to range between three-quarters of an inch and an inch-and-a-half across coastal and valley areas, and between an inch-and-a-half and two-and-a-half inches in some foothill and mountain locations, the NWS advisory said.

The snow level initially will remain high after the storms reaches the region but could fall to between 4,500 and 5,500 feet by Saturday morning, NWS forecasters said. Interstate 5 near The Grapevine could be affected as a result, they said.

Temperature highs will generally be in the mid 60s Friday but drop by several degrees — 11 degrees in some parts of Orange County — on Saturday.