It’s the calm between storms in SCV

A light rain and darkness falls on the cars traveling on the Antelope Valley freeway in December 2016. Dan Watson/The Signal
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So how wet was it? And how wet is it going to get?

About half an inch of rain fell around the Santa Clarita area between Wednesday and Thursday — with more on the way starting Friday and into Christmas Eve on Saturday.

Between Wednesday and 9 a.m. Thursday, L.A. County-maintained weather gauges recorded .35 inches at the Newhall-Soledad location, near the intersection of Henry Mayo Drive and The Old Road; .42 inches at Fire Station 149 in Castaic; .43 inches in Bouquet Canyon; and .47 inches at Castaic Junction, according to Steven Frasher, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works.

The National Weather Service, which maintains a gauge in Saugus, reported .01 inches on Wednesday – with its Thursday data not available until Friday, said Bonnie Bartling, a weather specialist at the service’s Oxnard office.

That National Weather Service number meant that the Santa Clarita Valley’s annual rainfall total could not yet – officially – be said to have surpassed last year’s total, though it seems on track to do so.

As of last Sunday, the National Weather Service’s Saugus gauge measured 1.58 cumulative inches so far this “water year,” which started on Oct. 1.

Wednesday’s .01 inches brought this water year’s total, since October, to 1.59 inches at the Saugus location – still officially below last year’s 1.62 inches through the end of December 2015.

Friday’s National Weather Service rain reading could put the Saugus location over last year’s total, with another week left in the year to surpass the mark.

Their forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of rain early in the day, going up to 100 percent at night – with heavy rains forecast at night. The rain is expected to continue, but taper off, into Saturday before clearing Saturday night.

Also, the National Weather Service forecast calls for high temperatures around 62 on Friday, low temps around 45 on Friday night and highs around 54 on Saturday.

Editor’s Note: The National Weather Service measured rain from July to June for more than 130 years, however, in 2015 it switched to measuring based on a “hydrological year” timetable as a result of the state’s severe multi-year drought. California agencies had long complained their year-end rain totals never matched  the National Weather Service numbers.

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