Heavy rain may signal El Nino's imminent arrival in Southland

El Nino may be finally headed to Southern California. Some meteorologists are taking this past weekend's downpour as a sign of wetter weather to come.

"For El Nino, things that we look for is increased tropical storms in the Eastern Pacific, which we've seen, (and) a monsoon pattern that shifted off to the east, also what we're seeing," said Michelle Mead, a meteorologist at National Weather Service.

But is California ready for heavy rain and thunderstorms?

In Desert Center, flash flooding washed out a bridge on Interstate 10, disrupting truckers and travelers alike. In Riverside, trains came to a stop after a portion of the track washed out. In many communities, clean up continued into the week.

Crews at Good Hope Elementary School have been hauling away mud since Monday. The saturated hills above the school sent water and debris into classrooms.

"We couldn't get into the rooms. There was mud inside the rooms, all the sidewalks. Just been cleaning mud for past two days," said Sergio Gutierrez, of Perris.

How strong of an El Nino the Southland will get remains to be seen. The last El Nino in 1997 and 1998 caused a lot of damage, including flooding, beach erosion and mudslides.

But California does need the water. Some are looking to El Nino for relief from the drought.

"As we all know, it took us four years to get into this drought. One year of at or above average precipitation probably isn't going to wipe it out. We are going to need quite a bit of rain," Mead said.

Experts say it's still too early to tell exactly what the El Nino pattern will be. The rainy season is expected to begin in October.