By Reginald Stanley. Posted November 17, 2023, 12:00 AM.

Low pressure off the Southern California coast sent a wave of thunderstorms and widespread precipitation to the region Wednesday and early Thursday.

Clouds began filling in across the region Wednesday morning, gradually moistening up what were very dry lower levels of the atmosphere. Crackles and booms of thunder occurred across large portions of San Diego County, as well as some parts of the Inland Empire, around 11 AM Wednesday. Some cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were reported as well. The warm nature of the storm kept snow levels high, and the storm's instability produced wide-ranging rainfall totals across the region. Some weather stations underreported precipitation due to clogged rain gauges, a result of what was a warm and dry Autumn up to this point - for these locations, totals were substituted using nearby stations available on the Wunderground website. The majority of the storm's precipitation fell during the afternoon and evening hours, mostly between 4 PM and 8 PM. Rain was more persistent further south, particularly in San Diego County. Storm totals ranged from as high as 1.23 inches in South Fallbrook, to a mere 0.20 inches in both Simi Valley and Pinon Hills, both well to the north. Most of the Temecula Valley and its surroundings, Hemet-San Jacinto, as well as foothill and mountain communities received healthy amounts of precipitation, while other locations in the interior Inland Empire were largely missed by thunderstorm activity and received lower precipitation totals. Northwest Murrieta received 1.04 inches from the storm, while northern Lake Elsinore received only 0.27 inches, despite being less than ten miles apart. In Temecula Valley's Wine Country, a total of 1.14 inches was reported (courtesy of Jim Sappington).

Following a break in the weather Thursday and part of Friday, another round of precipitation is expected to arrive late Friday and continue into Saturday.

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

1. Totals substituted from nearby weather stations available on Wunderground, due to rain gauge problems.