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Southland rain could be preview of the coming El Niño winter, experts say

It swamped streets, spilled into buildings, sent mud in motion and roiled rivers where rescue crews aided those swept up in the water overflow.

Then the downpour that stunned the drought-weary Southland with its intensity slunk off in the sun.

But if experts are right, the deluge offered a preview for the wet El Niño winter ahead.

The storm dumped more than two inches of rain on downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Alhambra and other areas in just a few hours. That made it the third-wettest storm in downtown L.A. since the late 1880s, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.