Election Day turned into a soggy march to the polls in San Diego County on Tuesday when an Alaska Gulf storm harnessed moisture from subtropics and dropped 1 to 6 inches of rain in one region. which absolutely needed a good soak.
The system arrived in the early hours of Tuesday, when the polls opened, and lasted well beyond the closing of the polling stations, at 8pm.
A plume of moisture known as the atmospheric river was lured into the storm by the warm ocean waters east of Hawaii. It collided with the largest mountains in the county, causing unusually abundant amounts of rain, says the National Weather Service. By 8pm, Mount Palomar had received nearly 6 inches of rain and was lashed by winds of up to 62mph.
The agency also reported the following rainfall totals:
Lake Henshaw, 3.52 inches; Cuyamaca Lake, 3.30 inches; Giuliano, 3.01 inches; Otay Mountain, 2.98 inches; Skyline Ranch, 2.83 inches; Rainbow, 2.22 inches; Alpine, 1.89 inches; Bonsall, 1.79 inches; Hidden, 1.73; Valley Center, 1.60 inches; Fallbrook, 1.53 inches; Ramona, 1.49 inches; Pine Valley, 1.44 inches; Warner Springs, 1.39 inches; Ramona Airport, 1.37 inches; Santee, 1.34 inches; Carlsbad, 0.96 inches; San Marco, 0.86 inches; San Diego, 0.83 inches; Field, 0.79 inch; Montgomery Field, 0.71 inches; Chula Vista, 0.21 in.
The storm, which caused minor flooding on Escondido Creek and delayed traffic on many of the region’s freeways, moved east late Tuesday night and was expected to be in Arizona and Nevada by Wednesday morning.
“When all of this is over, the rainfall totals will be staggering,” said Liz Schenk, an analyst with the meteorological service.
The system was expected to help significantly reduce the risk of fires in a county that experienced more than two years of below-average rainfall.
Writer Caleb Lunetta contributed to this report.
