Today
Has it rained enough in Los Angeles?
Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.
Los Angeles has had 30mm of rain in the last 30 days. That is well above the 15.2mm a normal October brings here, and closer to the wettest on record (132.4mm).
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Thirty years
Rain in Los Angeles through a normal year
Across a normal year Los Angeles gets about 355.7mm of rain, most of it in February (81.6mm) and least in July (1.9mm).
A normal October in Los Angeles has rain on 3 days. Only 2 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Los Angeles one of the drier places this site covers in the United States in October — 28th of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).
JFebMAMJJulASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.