SHOWERS DAMPEN MLK DAY EVENTS
Rain showers danced across Southern California on Monday, throwing a wet blanket on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“The totals are not that heavy, but you certainly want to be cautious if you’re driving,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The weather service said a band of steady showers with moderate to briefly heavy rain was moving across the region.
The storm continued throughout the day but was expected to dissipate before Tuesday.
Parts of Ventura County received slightly more than an inch Monday, while other areas in the region saw scattered showers, meteorologists said.
High temperatures were in the low to mid-60s.
The rain canceled at least one MLK Day event in Los Angeles County. An annual clothing collection and community breakfast hosted by the nonprofit Big Sunday was called off because of the weather, organizers said. The event will be rescheduled.
The annual Kingdom Day Parade, which typically includes floats, drill teams and marching bands along a route from the intersection of Western Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Leimert Park, was canceled for the second year in a row because of COVID-19 concerns.
Monday’s showers were an encore to very light rain that fell over the weekend, Sweet said, although there was not enough rainfall to be measured.
The brief rains follow record-breaking storms that drenched California in December.
The state received more precipitation in the final three months of 2021 than in the previous 12 months, the National Weather Service said.
Rain totals have been closer to normal in January following at least 10 inches of rain that marked the third-wettest December on record, Sweet said.
“Later this week, we go into a very dry, warm and possibly windy scenario,” he said.
Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-70s on Thursday, with winds kicking in over the weekend, the weather service said.