Cold, wet weekend storm will erase warm Southern California weather

Southern California has started to look like Southern California again, with sunny afternoons pushing highs into the 80s this week.

But don’t start planning warm-weather weekend activities just yet.

“Friday is when (temperatures) drop; it’s going down 10 degrees because we have a storm system coming,” said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“Unfortunately,” she added. “I’m pretty sure that’s been the case every weekend for several weekends, too.”

These cold, wet North Pacific storms have seemingly targeted Angelenos’ spring weekends, hitting week after week on Friday or Saturday, often putting a damper on outdoor weekend plans.

But after this system — which is expected to bring cool temperatures, rain and snow to mountains across the state — long-range forecasts call for a much drier last half of the month. From April 15 to 23, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center shows that almost all of California tends to experience below-average precipitation.

But first, Southern California must endure another cold and soggy weekend.

Considerable cooling and winds are expected to arrive Friday with the storm’s cold front, before rain begins Friday evening and lasts through Sunday.

While temperatures Wednesday and Thursday will reach 75 to 85 degrees in the Southland — with a chance of reaching 90 degrees in Woodland Hills — they will drop to about 65 to 75 degrees by Friday, Lund said, and even lower in mountains.

Rain will arrive Friday evening, starting steady before changing to showers, Lund said. Still, meteorologists say rain totals are not expected to be high, with Los Angeles County totals measuring about a quarter to three-quarters of an inch from this system.

Farther south in Orange and San Diego counties, only light showers are expected from time to time through the weekend, likely remaining less than a tenth of an inch, forecasters said.

But on the Central Coast, much heavier rainfall is forecast, with the possibility of up to 3 inches, most of it falling on Saturday.

The storm will also bring snowfall to the mountains, with 1 to 4 inches in the Southern California ranges, according to the forecast. Snow levels will drop to about 4,500 feet above sea level Saturday night through Sunday, but those lowest points aren’t expected to see much accumulation, Lund said.

Further east, several inches of snow are expected in the Sierra Nevada, mostly falling on Saturday.