Los Angeles welcomes back the sun and heat after an unusually wet year
After making like the Pacific Northwest for much of this unusually wet year, Southern California is returning to its dry, sunny norm this weekend.
Temperatures in the San Fernando Valley are expected to range from the high 80s into the low 90s Saturday and Sunday, while a marine layer will keep the coast in the temperate high-60-degree range, before beaches push into the low 70s Tuesday and Wednesday.
While the inland highs will be slightly above normal for spring, the weather pattern fits the Los Angeles Basin's norm — with a ridge of high pressure pushing inland temperatures higher, while breezes from the Pacific Ocean keep highs on the coast roughly 20 degrees cooler.
A slight cooling trend is expected throughout Southern California later in the week, along with possible thunderstorms in the foothills and mountains.
"It's going to feel more like summer for a pretty good stretch now," said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "It's going to be warm and sunny. It feels like the season has changed."
California's Central Valley will get even hotter this weekend. Temperatures will reach more than 90 degrees and could top out at more than 100 degrees in a few locations Sunday and Monday.
The only significant sign of rain will be a latent one — with much of an enormous snowpack in Sierra Nevada continuing to melt and causing rivers, streams and reservoirs throughout the region to swell. The weather service issued a flood warning for Tulare and Kings counties because of overloaded reservoirs releasing water over the weekend.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, inland temperatures in cities such as Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin also could reach into the low 90s this weekend.
The Pacific Northwest is expecting the most unusual weather event for mid-May, with the region now outdoing its southern neighbors with extreme heat. Temperatures in Portland, Ore., were expected to reach into the mid-90s Saturday and Sunday. That would exceed record temperatures for this time on the calendar.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
