By Reginald Stanley. Posted November 12, 2022, 4:03 AM.

A major Pacific storm, the first of the 2022-2023 water year, brought widespread significant rainfall and mountain snow to the region between Monday and Wednesday, along with gusty winds. For Southern California, the storm was the wettest and most significant to affect the region since December 2021 - almost a full year ago.

Showers late Monday turned into full-blown rain - heavy at times - throughout the day on Tuesday, bringing with it very gusty winds. Showers tapered off early Wednesday morning, leaving cold air and mostly clear skies in its wake after winds died down. Precipitation totals were generally high for an early-November storm, with the majority of inland communities recording between one and two inches of rainfall by the storm's end. In the WeatherCurrents network, the Temecula Valley ended up on the higher end of storm totals, where northwestern Murrieta was the wettest location with 2.77 inches of rain recorded there. Not too far east of the Temecula Valley, an even wetter total of 3.27 inches was reported in Temecula Valley Wine Country (courtesy of Jim Sappington) while nearby southern Temecula recorded a modest 2.14 inches. Lake Elsinore also benefited from the storm's dynamics with a total of 2.18 inches. In East Highland, 2.33 inches was reported (courtesy of Peter Michas) while a similar total of 2.26 inches was reported in Yucaipa (courtesy of Don Kramer).

On the drier side of the storm were the eastern valleys, as well as WeatherCurrents' more northerly stations. Perris recorded the lowest total with 0.79 inches. Well to the northwest, Simi Valley received 1.09 inches while 1.30 inches was recorded in Pinon Hills. San Jacinto recorded 1.24 inches, while its sister station in neighboring Hemet was wetter with 1.84 inches.

Snow levels hovered around 7000 feet above sea level for the wettest part of the storm, although dustings of snow began falling down to roughly 5000 feet late Tuesday night as colder air descended upon the region and winds faded. A fresh coat of snow was visible on the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountain ranges, as visible from the inland valleys after the storm departed.

Here are the rain totals for the WeatherCurrents network and associates: