Not sure what part of socal you live in but us folk who live in the inland empire we have to deal with the thunderstorms every august during the late monsoon season. every year I have lived here since 1962.
I've not heard about that. I've gotten my weather reports exclusively from internet sources specifically for my area, so I have no idea what the weather is like in a lot of the other areas out here.
I'm in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. We've never gotten rain in August. I've seen lighting and heard thunder four times since living here. Orientation to the coast and mountain ranges probably have a lot to do with the differences in regional weather.
I don't know how the rainfall forecast compares to what's normal for your area, but it's nearly double the amount of rain we got here in any one day, even during last winter's record breaking rains for this area.
Each day I hope the rainfall forecast comes down and each day it goes up a little bit. Hopefully, that will change starting Saturday.