Over the past few weeks, rounds of Atmospheric Rivers have hit the Southern California region, affecting the MacArthur students and staff. Multiple low-pressure systems from December 27 to January 15, came over the West Coast of the US, and in California, the right ingredients for an Atmospheric River happened, six times over. The rain totals kept coming up with each wave, and one day, January 10, some heavy rain fell over the school. 

That day, P.E. Teacher Mr. Patrick Evans said, “It looked like a white-out!  The rain was going sideways.”

The atmospheric rivers were very impactful for California, as they swept away a good chunk of the drought that has been building up in the past few years. Though, it caused flash flooding in Northern California, killing 21. The rivers dropped approximately 32 trillion gallons over the state of California. Southern California did have its fair share of problems too, with the rain causing mudslides.

From that 20-day stretch, 6.49 inches of rain fell over Santa Ana and a more significant amount of rainfall than the last time this stretch of days happened with that amount of precipitation being only 1.24 inches and the year before that by 5.19 inches. This also beats the average total by 4.65”. In other areas near and in Orange County, Fullerton got 6.22”, Newport Beach got 4.57”, Ontario got 6.90”, and Oceanside got 5.81”. 

The rain had impacted people here at MacArthur and many people liked it, as seventh-grader Eric C. said, “I liked the rain; I wore a lot of wet clothes.” 

Some people didn’t like the rain, like eighth-grader Elizabeth V. who said, “I didn´t like it because I don’t like gloomy weather.”

Some people didn’t really care, like seventh-grader Will H. said, “It didn’t really affect me much but I kind of thought it was funny when the rain started spraying in my third period when the door was open” 

Though it impacted people, it didn’t awfully affect the school physically, only causing some draining and puddling issues.