Santa Monica Pier and beaches have reopened to the public today with authorities saying they will continue to monitor weather conditions.
The Pier and beaches were closed and evacuated Saturday afternoon due to the threat of lightning, police there said at 2:35 p.m.
Western Los Angeles County appeared to have gotten the heaviest rain Saturday, as most areas were dry but some soaked.
One backyard weather gauge near Zuma Beach got an unofficial .70 inches of rain.
Rain gauges operated by Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works detected .31 inches of rain as of 4 p.m. at an unofficial, remote control rain gauge above Decker Canyon in western Malibu.
Other L.A. County totals included:
– Upper Malibu Canyon, .29 inches;
– Sepulveda Basin, .24;
– Hansen Dam, .32;
– Flintridge, .16; and
– Descanso Gardens, .28 inches.
In central L.A., .16 inches was recorded at USC, and .11 near the Civic Center, according to the county’s rain gauges.
Beaches from Long Beach to Zuma were closed by lifeguards Saturday morning and again in the afternoon, when lightning flashed and unusual summer clouds dropped scattered heavy rain, a gift from a dying Mexican hurricane.
Heavy rain fell at Malibu and Santa Monica during the 8 a.m. hour, as subtropical storm clouds from Tropical Depression Dolores wafted northward from Mexico, meteorologists said.
Lightning zapped electric lines across Los Angeles. The DWP reported 10,000 custoemrs affected by outages, likely related to the storm.
Service was out at midafternoon for about 3,000 customers in the Vermont- Slauson area, 2,400 in South Los Angeles, 2,000 in Lincoln Heights, 1,700 in the Westlake District and 1,000 in University Park.
L.A. County beaches were closed for 100 minutes in the morning, and again at 2:10 p.m., when lifeguards were alerted by the National Weather Service that lightning was moving into the area.
All across the basin, lightning and thunder was widespread, and morning freeway traffic slowed to 20 miles per hour in heavy rain on Interstate 10 in the Inland Empire.
“Please take the advice of lifeguards on the beach and seek safe shelter indoors,” begged Los Angeles County lifeguards, using all capital letters on the word “please” in their Twitter message.
“If you are unable to get into a building with four walls and a roof for cover, get into your car!” the lifeguards exhorted. “Do not get into ocean.”
Beaches were first closed from 8:10 to 9:50 a.m., and the afternoon closure was to stretch through at least 4:30 p.m., lifeguards said.
The stern warnings came following the death of one surfer and hospitalization of seven others last summer, when a “bolt from the blue” lightning strike hit the Venice Pier and electrified both it and the surrounding ocean.
