Below are nine live video feeds from spots in and around Los Angeles.
Pop culture depictions of sunny Southern California at Christmas are always at least a little exaggerated, but this year they’re dead wrong. The sky will open up and dump biblical amounts of rain on the LA area during the holiday week. One area in the Angeles National Forest, Mt. Wilson, received a downright horrifying “high-end” forecast of 9.5 inches between now until December 25. For reference, it’s common knowledge around here that we should expect 15 inches per year in Los Angeles.
It won’t be that bad across all of Southern California, but the National Weather Service forecast office for Los Angeles currently (as of this writing) carries the headline “Dangerous Floods this Week!!!”—with three exclamation marks. A huge swath of the greater LA area, including Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley, Downtown LA, and parts of eastern Los Angeles County are bracing for rock and mud slides, flooded roads, and overflowing rivers and streams.
If you’re in the area, and you need emergency information, sign up for the the alert system from the Emergency Management Department. For non-emergencies, why not have a look at storm conditions on these webcams? Hobbyists, realtors, and hotels often set up live cams for fun and profit—or, sometimes intentionally to document the weather. Whatever the original purpose, any live cam can become genuinely useful when it gets this rainy.
Live cams sometimes go dead during major weather events, and new ones sometimes show up, so this article may be updated from now until December 26.
Downtown Los Angeles skyline
This camera setup is in East Los Angeles, pointed west toward the skyline. It will offer a decent glimpse at overall atmospheric conditions.
Ventura and the Channel Islands
Looking out at the San Buenaventura Coastline from Ventura, you probably cannot see the Channel Islands in a rainstorm, but this webcam view includes a neighborhood, a little bit of beach, and a peek at conditions on the roads.
San Bernardino Mountains
The harshest precipitation is expected to stretch all the way east to the Inland Empire. Out in the San Gorgonio Wilderness, seen in this live view, that will mean snow.
Venice Beach number 1
This live cam is used to promote the Venice V Hotel. It offers a dynamic, shifting view of the beach and boardwalk, which is famously just a board-less concrete promenade.
Venice Beach number 2
Another view of Venice Beach
Manhattan Beach and the Santa Monica Mountains
From this moving camera in El Porto, Manhattan Beach, you can see the surf, and the Santa Monica Mountains off in the distance.
Santa Monica
This wildly shifting and zooming live cam lets you see all of Santa Monica off in the distance, along with detailed views of the beach, the boardwalk, and the rides at Pacific Park.
Huntington Beach is south of Los Angeles, but still expected to see a downpour. This view shows conditions on Huntington Beach Pier, and the surrounding waves.
Pine Cove
This live cam shows traffic on Highway 243 somewhere in the mountain communities of Idyllwild and Pine Cove, well to the east of Los Angeles.
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