Are excessive rains the new winter normal?

Good morning. It’s Friday, Jan. 26. I’m Shelby Grad, deputy managing editor for daily news. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• We could be facing another extraordinarily wet winter
• Former L.A. City Councilmember Jose Huizar asked for leniency in corruption case
• 12 don’t-miss home tours for Midcentury Modern fans at Palm Springs’ Modernism Week
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Last year brought wild rains. This year could bring even more.

Southern California’s climate means we can go years without a washout winter. But history shows the folly of assuming the dry times are forever. Just when you think drought conditions are here to stay, a deluge arrives that brings chaos and destruction.

The region experienced a profoundly wet rain season last year. Plentiful winter storms plus the added bonus of Hurricane Hilary set many records.

The last few months have brought more extreme weather. Ventura County and San Diego County experienced massive flooding from unprecedented downpours that necessitated rescues and caused significant damage.

As The Times’ Hayley Smith and Grace Toohey reported, “both were called “thousand-year events” — or events with 0.1% likelihood in a given year.”

Climate change is bringing more extreme weather

So what is going on? An expert told them it is just one more way climate change (among other factors) is upending the state. “The idea that climate change is causing the wet and dry periods to become more extreme for California — that’s what the models have been predicting, and that’s what’s been happening,” said Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

The region saw more rain Thursday. How does the rest of the winter look like? We asked Smith and here is what she said:

California is bracing for another strong system to inundate the state in the weeks ahead. A powerful atmospheric river system is taking shape in the Pacific Northwest and could deliver heavy winds, rain and flooding along the West Coast beginning Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

Seasonal outlooks indicate that the rest of the Golden State’s rainy season may be similarly damp — particularly in Southern California, where odds favor wetter-than-normal conditions through April.

El Niño, the climate pattern associated with warm, wet conditions in the Southland, is expected to gradually weaken this spring before transitioning back into neutral conditions. The outlook for the rest of the year remains inconclusive.

But if recent years have taught us anything, in California, anything can happen.

Today’s top stories

A pedestrian tightens a rain covering amid showers in downtown Los Angeles.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Weather and climate

• Clear skies forecast for Southern California after Thursday showers — but it won’t last long.
• PG&E has been penalized $45 million in Dixie fire settlement with CPUC.

Former Councilmember Jose Huizar corruption case

• ‘I lost everything.’ Huizar asks for leniency in L.A. corruption case.
• How Huizar’s stunning fall exposed ‘rampant corruption’ at L.A. City Hall.

Crime and courts

• A Costa Mesa man was convicted of murder in the freeway shooting of a 6-year-old.
• Who’s liable for violence at a protest? Enamorado case highlights a 1st Amendment issue.
• Vince McMahon and WWE were accused of sexual assault and trafficking in a new lawsuit.

Kobe Bryant’s death

• Kobe Bryant died four years ago today. You can pay your respects at these 24 murals in L.A., eight in O.C.
• Bryant’s legacy shines bright four years after his death.

Entertainment

• Explicit Taylor Swift deepfakes circulated on the internet. Her Swifties are seeing red.
• Sony restores Scenic Arts building where ‘Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Sound of Music’ backdrops were created.
• In ‘Chrissy & Dave Dine Out,’ Los Angeles and its restaurant scene take the spotlight.
• SAG-AFTRA defends Alec Baldwin after ‘Rust’ criminal charge: ‘An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert.’

More big stories

• Los Angeles Times owner appoints Terry Tang as interim editor.
• Here’s why some high-risk patients aren’t getting drugs to combat COVID.
• The California Air Resources board blasted an EV charger company, then approves its $200-million plan anyway
• Boeing Max 9s to return to skies less than a month after a panel blew off midflight.
• Citing risks, UC won’t hire its immigrant students without legal status, work permits.
• New, expanded child tax credits are back — and they may actually pass Congress.
• Sorry, speeders: A new bill would require speed-limiting devices in California cars.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• Sammy Roth: The lithium revolution has arrived at California’s Salton Sea.
• Opinion: How a Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger could test the new world of antitrust.
• Michael Hiltzik: Nikki Haley is as bad on abortion and health as any other Republican.
• Bill Plaschke: Kobe Bryant’s legacy shines bright four years after his death.
• Frank Shyong: Chinese birth tourism documentary pulls back the curtain on a controversial industry.

Today’s great reads

(Marcus Yam/Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

‘You will not sit here while our children die.’ Desperate families of Gaza hostages push for cease-fire. More than three months into Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas, many of the families have grown disillusioned with the war and are convinced that only a cease-fire — not further military operations — will free their loved ones.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

American artist Josh Agle (aka Shag), right, and Brandon McBurney posde outside McBurney’s home, better known as the “Shag House,” in Palm Springs.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🏡 12 don’t-miss home tours for Midcentury Modern fans at Palm Springs’ Modernism Week.
• 🌼 Taro iced coffee, ‘Turning Red’ and peach blossoms: Lunar New Year at Disneyland is here.
• 🌚 Where to have a prosperous Lunar New Year feast in Los Angeles.
• 🍽️ After more than 40 years in Koreatown, The Dragon will serve its last plate of jajangmyeon Sunday.

Staying in

• 🎤 Justin Timberlake releases new song, ‘Selfish,’ for his first solo album since 2018.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for rainbow cookies.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... a powerful photo

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

Raul Moreda, 61, sleeps under a blanket of plastic while sharing an encampment with another homeless man at Tiara Street Park in North Hollywood. Moreda was counted on the first night of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s 2024 census in an effort to capture a point-in-time snapshot of the homelessness crisis affecting the region.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s powerful photo is from Times photographer Genaro Molina. The annual three-night Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is underway with volunteers fanning out to tally the number of unsheltered individuals, tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters they see in their assigned census tract.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Shelby Grad, deputy managing editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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