California Rain Map Shows Cities to Be Hit Hardest by ‘Significant’ Storm

National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists shared a map on social media that reveals which southern California cities will be hit hardest by an approaching storm expected to arrive this weekend.

California has faced an abnormally wet winter as moisture-laden storms and atmospheric rivers dumped a deluge of rain and snow on the state, beginning in January. The excessive rainfall has resulted from a slew of atmospheric rivers that have battered the state this month. Last year, more than a dozen of them helped alleviate the state’s severe drought situation and replenished many of the state’s reservoirs, but the storms also caused devastating floods and landslides.

Atmospheric rivers are defined as a “long, narrow region in the atmosphere—like rivers in the sky—that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“As March draws to a close, winter isn’t quite done yet. A significant storm is headed our way for the holiday weekend, with widespread rain totals of 1-3″, but with 3-6″ in the foothills & mtns [mountains],” the NWS office in Los Angeles posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday evening.

In a separate post, NWS Los Angeles shared an updated rainfall prediction map.

Forecasts show Pine Mountain, Ojai and Pasadena receiving the most rain at 3.83 inches, 3.49 inches and 3.14 inches respectively. Lancaster is expected to receive the least amount of rain at 1.01 inches. Snow also is expected with the storm, with up to 12 inches falling in Wrightwood, up to 18 inches in Tejon Pass and up to 24 inches at San Rafael Mountain.

Newsweek reached out to the NWS office in Los Angeles by phone for comment.

Earlier this week, the most-updated rainfall map showed Los Angeles receiving 1.87 inches of rain from the approaching storm—nearly its entire monthly amount of rain in only four days. Now, the city is even closer to achieving the feat, with 2.07 inches of rain expected to fall beginning on Friday.

However, the city has already surpassed its average annual rainfall for the water year, which runs from October to September. As of Monday morning, Los Angeles had received almost 20 inches of rain, 6.65 inches above the average, with six months still to go. San Diego and Riverside also have received more than their annual average rainfall.

The approaching storm is one of three moisture-laden storms expected to hit California back-to-back.

The first storm hit last weekend, and the second is ongoing, primarily targeting northern California and neighboring states, including Oregon and Washington. The incoming storm impacting southern California is the third and final storm in the series.

AccuWeather meteorologists expect the weekend storm to be the last significant storm of the late winter/early spring season in Southern California, although more storms are on the horizon for the central and northern parts of the state.

The NWS warned that there is a moderate risk for significant flooding with the approaching storm. Although the worst of the rain will fall on Friday, steady showers will persist on Saturday and Sunday. There is also a slight risk for thunderstorms on Saturday night and a remote risk of severe storms.