Over 3 ½ inches of rain fell Thursday in the Palm Springs area, bringing traffic on the ground to a virtual standstill, prompting at least three swift-water rescues and closing schools early.
Thanks to an “atmospheric river,” Thursday was the third-wettest dayever at Palm Springs International Airport, records from the National Weather Service show.Valentine's Day will be remembered as the wettest day in 76 years in Palm Springs. The city officially received 3.69inches.
Numerous roads were swamped with mud and water, forcing their closure, and at least one important connector route, Highway 243, collapsed due to a sinkhole. Highway 243 links Banning and Idyllwild, and with its closure, motorists must take Highways 97 and 74 on a much longer route.
“Are you floating on water over there?” asked weather service Meteorologist Brandt Maxwell.
“You guys are getting pounded and you can quote me on that,” he said just after 4 p.m. “This is pretty exciting stuff. You don’t usually get this much.”
The all-day heavy rain promptedat least three rescues along roads and washes in the Coachella Valley. The wettest day for the region was recorded on Jan. 23, 1943, when 4.57 inches fell at the airport. On Dec. 10, 1943, almost a year later, the second-wettest day was recorded with 3.80 inches of rainfall. The 10th wettest day was when 2.50 inches fell on July 20, 1979.
In Desert Hot Springs, three people were pulled from a car that went around a road closure sign and became trapped in waters at Two Bunch Palms Trail at Little Morongo Road. No one was injured. In Palm Springs, a man was rescued after being trappedbetween two palm trees at Mesquite Country Club in Palm Springs. And on Route 111 between Palm Springs and Interstate 10, rescuers had to pull to safety a man trapped in rushing waters.
While the western Coachella Valley saw the worst of the storm, some eastern valley communities includingThermal and Thousand Palms were relatively spared by the downpour.
Thousand Palms received 1.58 inches of rain. The Thermal airport, located about 30 miles east of Palm Springs International Airport, got an inch, according to48-hour rainfall totals from the weather service that ended at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Cathedral City, Coachella and Indio each received less than 1.7 inches of rain, the weather service said.
The downpour also helped Palm Springs edge closer to its yearly average rainfall of 5.74 inches. In January, Palm Springs received 1.26 inches of rain.
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One of the three school districts in the Coachella Valley, the Palm Springs Unified School District, closed early and had parents pick up their children early when possible. After-school and evening programs, including a science fair, were canceled. Thursday night's Science Fair and STEAM Expo was postponed until Feb. 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Richards Center at Palm Springs High School.
Palm Springs police on Thursday evening lifted voluntary evacuations for Horizon Mobile Home Park, officials said. Flooding in a nearby wash caused potentially hazardous conditions for mobile home park residents.Araby Cove also was under a voluntary evacuation.
The Red Cross is setting up a temporary shelter for those who leave their homes, located at the Palm Springs Pavilion, 401 S. Pavilion Way.
Most mandatory evacuation orders in and near the Holy Fire burn scar were downgraded Thursday night to voluntary evacuation warnings. They include the neighborhoods of Alvarado-A, Alberhill, Glen Eden, Glen Ivy-A,Glen Ivy-B, Grace,Horsethief-A, Horsethief-B,Maitri, McVicker-A, Rice, Amorose, Laguna-A andWithrow-A. Voluntary warnings remained in effect for Alvarado-B, Alvarado-C, Lakeside-A, Lakeside-B,Lakeside-C, Laguna-B and McVicker-B.
More than 1,700 Southern California Edison customers lost power at some point during the day Thursday, but it wasn’t clear whether the rain was the sole cause of the outages.
The Palm Springs airport remained open through the day, though some airline cancellations and delays due to weather related visibility were reported, airport Executive Director Thomas Nolan said.
At least one flight had to be diverted from Palm Springs. Flair Air Flight 855 from Edmonton, Canada, was scheduled to arrive at 9 a.m. but was diverted to Las Vegas, where it arrived at 11:40 a.m., according to Flight Tracker.
Many roads throughout the Coachella Valley were closed as waters rushed through washes and swept down avenues and streets. During the day, some areas experienced a quarter-inch of rainfall per hour, contributing to the mess.
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Among the roads closed were, some of which will remain shut down for the near future, Highway 111 between Interstate 10 and Palm Springs was closed due to a mud slide; North Gene Autry Trail between I-10 and Via Escuela was closed; South Palm Canyon Drive at Murray Canyon was closed; North Indian Canyon Drive was closed north of Tramview Road; South Farrell Drive South of Ramon Road was closed; South El Cielo Drive south of Ramon Road was closed; Golf Club Drive was closed at Tahquitz Creek; Baristo Road at South Indian Canyon Drive was closed; East Vista Chino between North Gene Autry Trail and Cathedral City was closed; and Araby Drive at the wash was closed.
Frank Sinatra Drive and Country Club Drive were closed at the Whitewater wash in Rancho Mirage.
Cathedral Canyon at the wash and Los Gatos at Date Palm Drive were closed in Cathedral City and Highway 74 at Apple Canyon was closed on both sides of Herkey Creek. Further, Caltrans said Highway 74 was closed from Lake Hemet to Valle Vista due to road loss. In Indian Wells, Fred Waring Drive was closed in both directions from Cook Street to Eldorado Drive.
In La Quinta, Dune Palms Road was closed from Westward Ho Drive to Highway 111.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway closed on Thursday and planned to remain closed on Friday. The SilverRock golf course also was closed Thursday due to standing water.
The rainfall began to ease shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, but the weather service said flooding could continue for several days as water spills down from the surrounding mountains.
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Residents in more than a dozen neighborhoods in the Holy Fire burn area, including Alvarado A, Alvarado B, McVicker B, Lakeside A, Laguna B, near the Holy Fire burn scar remained under evacuation warnings on Thursday. But those living in the Amarose, Alberhill, Glen Eden, Glen Ivy A, Glen Ivy B, Grace, Horsethief A, Horsethief B, Laguna A, Maitri, McVicker A, Rice and Withrow A were urged to follow a mandatory evacuation order.
The storm impacted most of Southern California. It was borne from an “atmospheric river” flowing down from Alaska that bombarded Northern California with record snowfall on Wednesday. When that river collided with a stream of warm, moist air originating near Hawaii in the Pacific, the one-two punch resulted in record rainfall.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines atmospheric rivers this way: “Atmospheric rivers are … like rivers in the sky” that carry most of the water vapor outside of the tropics. “These columns of vapor move with the weather, carrying an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River.” Once the river flows over land, they “often release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow.”
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department reminded motorists that if they come to a flooded or closed roadway, to find an alternate route. “Do not drive past barricades if streets are flooded,” the prepared statement said. “Turn around, don’t drown.”
Information from City News Service was used in this report.