Overview
- Another surge of heavy rain and thunderstorms arrived on Christmas Day, with a high‑end moderate excessive rainfall risk over Southern California and 2 to 4 more inches possible in the Los Angeles area.
- Evacuation orders and warnings remained in burn‑scar zones as crews conducted door‑to‑door checks and carried out rescues in Wrightwood and Lytle Creek after debris flows and flooding.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Shasta counties, and Los Angeles issued a local emergency as shelters opened and resources were pre‑positioned.
- Widespread impacts included flooded freeways and closures such as a stretch of I‑5 near Burbank, power outages affecting roughly 150,000 to 165,000 customers, and at least two weather‑related deaths reported.
- Sierra Nevada snowfall measured in feet brought chain controls on I‑80 and a considerable avalanche risk, while severe storms in the Bay Area produced damaging winds exceeding 70 mph and flash flooding.