Sunny, Warm Days to Decorate Weekend

A ridge of high pressure now building along the West 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.

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

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

Fend Off Bad Weather

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- 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.

Sailing weather was expected to include light and variable winds overnight and most mornings for inner waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border with a chance of fog, freshening west to southwest and rising at times to 15 knots with 1 or 2 feet of westerly swell. Those venturing farther out were warned of northwest winds rising at times to 25 knots around Santa Rosa Island, with combined seas to 10 feet in some places.

Mountain temperatures in this vicinity and in the Sierra were expected to hit the mid-70s at resort levels by Sunday, with clear days and nights and local gusty northerly winds over ridges and through the passes. Predicted lows ranged from the low 40s and upper 30s in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains to the low 30s in the Sierra.

Wind in the Desert

Desert visitors were told to prepare for a windy time. Clear days and starry nights were to be accompanied by local afternoon and evening northerly winds gusting to 25 m.p.h. around the Colorado River Valley and 10 to 15 m.p.h. elsewhere.