Pretty rare event: rain in coastal southern California in July, including Los Angeles. Sometimes there are summer thunderstorms in the mountains, but this is pretty solid batch of rain. Most of it is offshore now but late yesterday looked like significant rain.

We are having heartland drought but the 11 day string of 100 deg+ days ended a few days ago and now it is only in the 90s. The warmth for the last 12 months and especially since fall is really exceptional over a large part of the country: is officially warmest calendar year to date for the 48 states.

Chris