El Nino Week - January 17-22, 2010

Southern California and Arizona were battered with viscous El Nino driven storms that began on Sunday, January 17 and ended late on Friday, January 22. Intense rainfall, flooding, mudslides, thunderstorms, epic mountain snowfall, and tornadoes were the menu items.

On Tuesday, January 19, a waterspout that formed from a rotating supercell west of Catalina Island moved ashore as a tornado into the Sunset Beach/Huntington Harbour area of Huntington Beach, casuing EF-0 damage to businesses, boats, uprooted trees, and flipping a SUV in a shopping center parking lot along Pacific Coast Highway. The waterspout came ashore about 1pm local time. Another possible tornado caused damage a few miles farther south in Coasta Mesa, but it has not yet been officially determined to be a tornado.

Other confirmed tornadoes/funnel clouds during the week:

• Monday, January 18 - Funnel cloud - Fresno
• Tuesday, January 19 - Waterspout/tornado - Goleta/Santa Barbara
• Thursday, January 21 - Waterspout/tornado - Santa Barbara
• Thursday, January 21 - Waterspout/Tornado - Ventura

Many areas in Southern California received up to 10 inches of rainfall along the coastal and valley areas, and twice that amount along the foothills. Snow fell at record amounts averaging depths of 5-6 feet at mountain resorts with the greatest depth recorded at Mt Baldy Ski Resort of 8 feet. Snow fell as low as 2000 feet later in the week.

Arizona experienced significant flooding around the Phoenix area as several rivers overran their banks.

(more storm details coming.....)