Runoff‐conditions in 1940–41 on the South Coast basin, California

Abstract

Conditions of runoff and rainfall over the South Coast Area of California during the season of 1940–41 were such that the public at large was kept in a state of resigned expectancy. With the memory of the flood of March 1938 still fresh in their minds, people, through the months of February and March, 1941, began noting with growing apprehension the mounting precipitation‐figures and the constant and prolonged storms that covered the South Coast Area. Newspapers headlined rainfall as records approached 25‐year highs, 40‐year highs, and edged toward the all‐time recorded high. The layman in this territory, perhaps to a greater extent than elsewhere, instinctively realizes that a continual recurrence of rain is usually an indicator of floods.