Warmth, Sun Forecast for the Weekend

A ridge of high pressure building along the coast should offer Southern California a weekend of sunny skies and warming temperatures, the National Weather Service said Thursday.

Low clouds may return to coastal areas during the night and morning hours today, but they should be gone by noon.

Santa Ana registered a 73-degree reading for the day’s high temperature after an overnight low of 53. The temperature at Newport Beach only reached 64. But the expected warmer temperatures should be ideal for beach fans.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center Thursday was also 73 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 83% to 44%, and the weather service predicted that today will be at least 5 degrees warmer, with temperatures rising to the upper 80s by Sunday.

All this, meteorologists explained, was because of a high-pressure area--centered 300 miles off Monterey--that is slowly bulging toward the Pacific Northwest.

This pressure ridge, they said, should fend off any bad weather moving down from the Gulf of Alaska, while pushing moist marine air ashore each night.

Weekend beach weather was expected to be near-perfect each afternoon, with 7-m.p.h. to 14-m.p.h. sea breezes, surf running 2 to 3 feet on a 12-to-14-second interval, and water 55 to 59 degrees --which should be 5 to 15 degrees below the air temperature.