Jean

Most reports here are for "periods of rain" on Tuesday with "steady rain" Tuesday night. Driving times will be longer if it rains. But check again on Sunday night and Monday morning. Coastal weather doesn't always follow the atmospheric modeling, and we've had many fronts go right past us. Ergo, our drought.

Cranachin

Thanks, Jean!

Jean

Tuesday night has already changed to "occasional light rain."

You haven't mentioned your plans after Lake Forest/RSM.... FYI after a good rain the views across the L.A. Basin, the mountains and Catalina are often spectacular.

Cranachin

Jean,

I'll be in Orange County on business. Things wrap up on Friday afternoon or evening (don't know how late yet), and right now my plan is to stay out there Friday night and then drive back to LAX on Saturday for my 12:45 PM flight back to Boston. I suppose I could look for a place closer to LAX, but it seemed like a hassle to have to wait until after the evening rush hour (and on a Friday) to move hotels for one night when I felt there was no real reason to.

I figured I would need to turn the rental car in by 11:00 AM or so in order to make it back to the airport in good time. Is that early enough? I will only have carry-on luggage. For Midway that seems early enough. Probably isn't for Dollar, now that I think about it, so maybe that's another reason I should go with Midway

I could get up and out early on Saturday in time to go someplace for the view. Any suggestions? Griffith Observatory comes to mind, but I'm not sure where else.

janisj

IMO/IME you need significantly more time to drop the car (at any agency). They are off airport and you have to wait for the next shuttle which will circle the entire airport - which terminal are you using?

Do you get TSA Pre Check? If not, security lines at LAX can be enormous.

Cranachin

janisj,

It's Terminal 4.

Good to know about the security lines.

Jean

I agree about the time needed for car rental return. I wouldn't be planning to do anything that morning but get to LAX; otherwise, you create too many opportunities for traffic delays.

janisj

>>It's Terminal 4.

Jean

There is still construction going on at the Bradley Terminal end of LAX. When we arrived at Bradley about a month ago, one traffic lane was closed, adding to the congestion.

The weather people have upped the amount of rain expected on Tuesday to one inch which may come down within a fairly small window of time, although it's too soon to say what time.

One inch would be huge. In the last completed rain-measuring year (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2014), we got 6 inches total.

Jean

And rainfall estimates are rising. Just heard 1-2 inches possible.

Cranachin

Well!

The mudslides on the PCH north of LA would have nixed my idea of heading up that way even if Fodorites had approved of it.

Now I am wondering if I should change from outdoor (gardens, Palos Verdes Peninsula) to indoor pursuits (such as museums), given the rain forecast.

I also imagine traffic will be even more of a nightmare than usual because of the rain. Do people know how to drive in it? I ask because New Englanders (among whom I now live), who love to laugh at Southerners' reactions to snow, are actually pretty bad drivers in the rain (I grew up in Florida and have done plenty of that). At least that is my experience in the Boston area.

Do I need two plans, one for light rain and another for heavy? The forecasters aren't speculating on when the heaviest rain (0.5 inch per hour) will hit, or at least not from what I have seen so far.

Or should I just plan to hang out somewhere with wifi and wait until I can check into my hotel? (This is one occasion when not drinking coffee might be a disadvantage.)

jamie99

Have a safe trip, you can always drink hot chocolate.
I imagine since we have had so little rain the last few years that some folks may have forgotten how to drive in it, I plan on staying home all day.

Gardyloo

From growing up in the LA area and too-frequent trips back, my recommendation is to find someplace close to your overnight location, head there, and then look for indoor/protected activities. One or two inches of rain can make for chaos on surface streets and dead slow going on freeways. Local flooding, especially at intersections, is always a risk.

Find a shopping center near your hotel/destination, and watch a good movie; there are lots out at the moment. Or use the wifi at the hotel or at some cafe and surf away. LA in heavy rain is not much of a picnic. Remember your body clock will be ahead three hours; embrace the fatigue.

Jean

It's a combination of issues. It's not so much that people forget how to drive in rain, but the first rain in a while doesn't mix with oil on roads, making pavement slippery. In heavy downpours, visibility can be a little impaired and drainage can't always keep up. There can be flash floods in the foothills (like parts of RSM). People drive cautiously for a reason. The ones who don't usually cause accidents.

Drive times will be longer. AM1070 radio will give frequent traffic reports, but they run through the impacted freeways pretty quickly. Even I have trouble absorbing the references.

mlgb

Actually, a lot of people here really DON'T know how to drive in the rain!

There was even an article in the LA Times yesterday. It's always an event. Fortunately I didn't have to go more than a few miles away.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...202-story.html

Cranachin

emalloy,

“If your windshield wipers are on, you should have your headlights on,” CHP Officer Juan Galvan said.

That was drilled into me when I was learning to drive in Florida, and one of my pet peeves is people who fail to do so (I think LA drivers were better about it than drivers in Massachusetts are!). I have almost pulled in front of people who were driving in the rain AT TWILIGHT without headlights on. It was literally impossible to see them until the last minute.

Cranachin

For those who are interested, you can see what I actually did here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...os-angeles.cfm