November 9, 2025
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rare October storm pummeled parts of Southern California with heavy rain and strong winds Tuesday, threatening wildfire-scarred neighborhoods with the possibility of mudslides and prompting some evacuations.
As downpours moved through the region, drivers hydroplaned, and some accidents were reported on flooded roads. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for parts of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties in areas that recently had wildfires. Wildfires can leave hillsides without vegetation to hold soil in place and making it easier for the terrain to loosen during storms.
Rainfall amounts by Tuesday morning were as high as 3.5 inches in the Ventura County mountains. The western suburbs of Los Angeles received up to 2 inches, meteorologists said.
“We’re very concerned about the weather,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday night, explaining that strike teams, rescue teams, and helicopters were all ready to respond.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of about 115 homes, mostly in Pacific Palisades and Mandeville Canyon, where a massive inferno swept through in January. That fire killed more than 30 people in all and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County.
Fires make the soil become “an oil-like surface” that is impermeable, said David Roth, a forecaster with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
“It takes years for that to really wear off. The first year after a severe fire or a significant fire is the worst year, and just everything runs off. It’s almost like the ground has become asphalt,” Roth said.
Bass and other officials warned residents across the region to remain alert and stay indoors.
Still, Alex and Katarina Tsykhanivsky made a wet morning trek to the Griffith Observatory, which usually offers sweeping vistas of Los Angeles. The view on Tuesday was obscured by heavy clouds as downpours intensified.
“It doesn’t rain much in LA. So every time we see rain, we like to go out,” Alex Tsykhanivsky said.
The heaviest rain was still approaching on Tuesday.
At least two tornado warnings were issued, and rockslides were reported, but there was no immediate word of major damage. More than 21,000 customers in Southern and central California had already lost power, according to PowerOutage.us.
Teams from the Los Angeles Fire Department started patrolling the area Monday night, and a section of state Route 27, beginning at the Pacific Coast Highway, was closed in preparation for the storm, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, said on social media.
To the north, the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area said it was snowing Tuesday morning. Up to 3 feet of mountain snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada.
Heavy rain on Monday night across much of Northern California brought some urban flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.
In February, torrential rains unleashed debris flows and mudslides in several neighborhoods torched by the January fires. In the community of Sierra Madre, near the site of the Eaton Fire, water, debris, and boulders rushed down the mountain, trapping cars in the mud and damaging several home garages. A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway by Pacific Palisades was submerged in at least 3 feet of sludge, and a swift debris flow swept a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean.
Concerns about post-fire debris flows have been especially high since 2018, when mudslides ravaged the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito after a downpour hit burned mountain slopes.
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