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California’s Record Rainfall
For a 24-Hour Period

Rainfall

Photo courtesy of Erdenebayar & Pixabay.com.

California’s Record Rainfall for a 24-hour period was 25.83 inches, occurring January 22-23, 1943, at Hoegee's Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles County (about 1.8 miles southeast of Mount Wilson and two miles north of Sierra Madre). Not only does this remain a record for California, it is the fourth highest rainfall amount for a 24-hour period in the entire United States.

Hourly precipitation values for Hoegee's Campground indicated that the greatest 24-hour rainfall occurred between 1:00 AM on January 22nd to 1:00 AM on January 23rd. During that period, the storm delivered its record 25.83 inches (corrected from previous reports of 26.12 inches).

Two post-storm reports by the Weather Bureau, Hydrometeorological Report #36 (Table 8-4, p. 111) and Hydrometeorological Report #37 (Section 2-B-4, p. 42, and Section 4-C-3, pp. 125-126), provide more meteorological detail for the event.

Map Showing Location of Hoegee's Camp

Map showing location of Hoegee's Campground in the San Gabriel Mountains (pinpointed by a radio tower), just north of Sierra Madre. Map data ©2019 Google.

Source: State Climate Extremes Committee, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.