As the Weekend Draws Near, So Does the Rain

That warm, pleasant weather of the past several days will not hang around for the weekend, say the forecasters, as a Pacific storm pushes cool and unstable air toward Southern California.

“It’s not real wet,” Cary Schudy of the private Earth Environment Service in San Francisco said Thursday as he watched a very large, cold low-pressure area swirling off the coast, “but it is going to send some shower activity down through Southern California.”

Today is expected to be breezy and cool, with a 20% chance of showers in the Los Angeles area by tonight, according to the National Weather Service. The skies should begin to clear Saturday afternoon.

With a protective high-pressure system drifting away to the east, allowing low clouds and fog to spread inland, today’s coastal area highs should be in the 60s, rising slightly by Saturday.

By Sunday, the weather should be mostly clear, with temperatures 64 to 68 along the beaches and 68 to 74 in the valleys.

Thursday’s Los Angeles Civic Center high reached 72 after an overnight low of 51. Relative humidity ranged from 69% to 38%.

There won’t be “significant precipitation” at Southland ski resorts during the weekend, the weather service said, although snow levels should drop to the 5,000-foot level by early Saturday.

Mountain resort area highs are expected to be in the mid-30s to mid-40s during a windy weekend. In the northern deserts, where winds will be 20 to 35 m.p.h., highs will be in the 50s to mid-60s. They will be 68 to 77 in the southern deserts.

Pacific storms will continue to kick up a higher-than-normal westerly swell and surf along the beaches today and during the weekend. The surf is expected to be 4 to 6 feet at Santa Barbara and Ventura and 3 to 5 feet along Los Angeles and Orange County shorelines.

The surf could reach 7 feet at some Ventura County and San Diego County points and 6 feet on some Los Angeles County beaches.

There was a small-craft advisory for Ventura Harbor on Thursday afternoon because of rough seas 6 to 7 feet.