Southern California has a complex relationship with the rain.

Many years, we get very little of it. But when the big storm hits, it can bring devastating deluges that instantly alter the landscape and put people in harm's way.

And that brings us to "Stormwatch," the vital but sometimes mocked warnings about dangerous weather headed our way.

For days, forecasters raised alarms about potentially life-threatening storms that would dump heavy rain on the region. It would be the latest in a winter of extreme weather that brought once-in-1,000-year flooding to Ventura and San Diego County.

Many took the warnings seriously. A few scoffed.

But in the end, the grim forecast turned out to be largely right — and in some cases actually underestimated the rainfall.

The National Weather Service warned of an astonishing 6.37 inches of rain for downtown Los Angeles, and, incredibly, 8.66 inches fell for the four-day period ending late Tuesday — more than 60% of downtown L.A.'s annual average rainfall.

Elsewhere in the region, Long Beach was predicted to get 6.43 inches; 7.34 inches fell. Santa Clarita was expected to get 6.64 inches; 7.72 inches dropped. Northridge expected 6.74 inches; it got 7.81 inches. Westlake Village was on tap to get 5.74 inches; it got 7.61 inches. In Pomona, a 6.67-inch forecast gave way to 9.41 inches of rainfall.

Other areas saw estimates a little under expectation, but still within range of a memorable storm. Pasadena has so far received 8.61 inches of rain — impressive, but shy of an eye-popping forecast of 9.75 inches. Ojai was expecting to receive 7.16 inches but got 4.48 inches so far.

The accuracy of the forecast came in part because the configuration and orientation of this storm — while rare for Southern California — is familiar to weather officials so they could model it with a certain level of confidence.

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