Dodger Stadium is not a ‘big pond’ after Hilary, despite a viral aerial shot

Dodger Stadium, many believed, was drowning in a sea of water on Sunday, doomed by its unfortunate placement in a Los Angeles ravine.

At least that’s what a murky aerial photo prompted many to speculate as it went viral, making the social media rounds during Hilary. The home of the Dodgers appeared tragically swamped and likely to be troubled for many days.

Commenters lamented that Dodger Stadium had become an island.

But on Monday the team released staggeringly different pictures of the stadium, including parking lots that looked fresh and dry. The caption: “Dodger Stadium trending? We get it. It looks beautiful this morning.”

According to Erik Braverman, a senior vice president of communications with the baseball team, the stadium had at one point accumulated “maybe just over an inch of water.”

“The field was completely fine,” Mr. Braverman said in an email. “The empty parking lots had water obviously, but there was no flooding or damage.”

He added, “It’s pretty wild how this became such a story. I’m sitting in my office at the stadium right now and it is a beautiful day here.”

The contrasting public perception may have had something to do with the angle and distance of the initial photo, how closely someone studied its details, and how light played off the puddles.

“You’re getting the reflection off the cloudy sky into the water, and it makes it look like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s a massive lake.’ And that’s not the case,” said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service based in Oxnard, Calif.

“You can see the trees are high above the water. You can see there’s clues that the water is not as deep as it might appear — the parking lots are sticking way up high, and one could use deductive reasoning to realize it’s not very deep. But it looks like a big pond.”

Mr. Sirard said the total rainfall for that area since the storm began was from three to four inches.