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The most recent flash flood warnings from the ºÃÉ«tv Weather Service covered areas spanning from downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica to Mission Viejo in Orange County. Some vehicles were stuck in floodwaters near Culver City before dawn on Friday, the weather service reported.

A series of storms beginning Nov. 13 has unleashed copious amounts of rain, more than four times the normal amount that typically falls in November in downtown Los Angeles, according to weather service reports.

In a normal November, downtown Los Angeles typically gets 0.78 of an inch (2 centimeters) of rain, but has already seen about 3.5 inches (8.9 centimeters) this month.

Santa Barbara County has been a magnet for the moisture. Parts of the Santa Ynez Mountains have seen more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain this month, the weather service said.

A potent atmospheric river is blamed for causing at least a half-dozen deaths earlier this month as it rolled across much of California. Heavy rains also bring in areas that were recently ravaged by wildfire.

Atmospheric rivers are long and relatively that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting much of the moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.