Southern California braces for a wet weekend

Clouds hover over downtown L.A. as students leave the Roybal Learning Center complex in the rain.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A cyclist pedals past the Sunset Tropical Fish store in the 1300 block of Sunset Boulevard during an afternoon rain shower.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

How to avoid getting drenched? For a young pedestrian on Walnut Avenue in Huntington Beach, a speedy walk was the way to go.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A man dressed as a demon from the movie “Lord of the Rings” looks up as rain starts to fall outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on the first Friday the 13th of the year.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Ava Irving, 6, thinks she doesn’t need her umbrella anymore on her walk home from Palisades Elementary School in Pacific Palisades. Her sister Hazel, 2, joined their mother in picking Ava up from first grade.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Reflected in a window, a pedestrian passes through an alley in downtown Fullerton.  (Christina House / For The Times)

Ryan Riffe, left, and Biff Cooper head into the surf at San Onofre State Beach near San Clemente under the cover of gray clouds. The first of three storms expected to drench Southern California in coming days is making its way to L.A. County.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Surfboards are attached to a car at San Onofre State Beach. The approaching storm is expected to drop an inch of rain along the coast and up to an inch and a half in the foothills and mountains, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service said.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A group sits at San Onofre State Beach underneath gray clouds.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Steve and Gloria Nestlerode of Sierra Madre put up a wooden fence cleverly tagged with “There will be mud” in an attempt to protect their property from mudslides that could be triggered from expected heavy rains forecast to hit Southern California Friday night.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A flower blooms on a rainy morning in Sierra Madre where some neighborhoods are preparing for possible mudslides from expected heavy rains this weekend.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Storm clouds provide a dark contrast to the Korean Bell of Friendship and Bell Pavilion in San Pedro.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)