Rain returns to Southern California and another storm is coming Tuesday

Pay no mind to the fact that Memorial Day is around the corner — winter is here again.

Across California, yet another May storm on Sunday brought cool temperatures and rainfall throughout Southern California, hail in the Bay Area and even snow in the Sierra.

“This is May gray on steroids,� said Bill Patzert, a local weather expert and former climatologist with Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Usually by this time of year, we’re done but this meandering jet stream has been persistent through the spring and it’s given us four times our normal rainfall.�

Much of the state is seeing two to five times more precipitation than is normal for this point in May, according to the National Weather Service’s river forecast center for California and Nevada.

Patzert notes, however, that in many areas of Southern California that amounts to less than an inch of precipitation for the month.

But the storm also comes after an exceptionally wet winter, unusually wet May and another record-setting storm last week.

“What we’re seeing right now, it’s like the whipped cream on the sundae,� Patzert said.

While this year’s rare wet winter lifted California out of the drought for the first time in years, Southern California’s groundwater basins, which were depleted during the dry years, will still take years to refill.

“If anyone’s complaining here, I’m definitely deaf,� said Patzert. “Anyone who thinks we’re out of the drought is what I call drought delusional.�

Downtown Los Angeles typically gets about a quarter inch of rainfall for the entire month of May. As of 9 a.m. Sunday, the area had received 0.2 inch of rain in the previous 24 hours.

“If we had gotten this in March, it would have been a typical garden-variety storm,� said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “It’s different because it’s happening now.�

Here is what to expect:

--The rain will continue through Sunday evening with a chance of thunderstorms in some areas.

--The storm should dump up to 0.25 inch of rain along the coast, up to 0.50 inch inland and 1-6 inches of snow in mountains above 5,000 feet.

--The storm is bringing with it low temperatures in the L.A. area, with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s.

--Another storm will move in Tuesday, with a chance for more rain in the L.A. area in the late evening.

A storm on Thursday brought record-breaking rain for May, clobbering at least half a dozen rainfall tallies in Southern California.

In Northern California, a new storm was expected to bring more rain and snow.

A winter storm warning was issued for the Sierra Nevada through early Monday. Heavy snow could cause travel delays in the mountains.

UPDATES:

1:09 p.m.: This article was updated with further details.

X:XX a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Patzert and additional details.

This article was originally published at 7:40 a.m.