Slightly Warmer Days, Clearer Skies Forecast

Blue skies skirmished with black clouds Thursday, winning a late-afternoon battle in Huntington Beach but losing a daylong contest in Santa Ana and most other Orange County locales.

Forecasters said things might warm up a little today and over the weekend, as a sluggish low-pressure system finally moves off toward Nevada and Arizona.

The heat is not expected back any time soon, however.

Light rain was scattered from the coast to southern Nevada on Thursday as the low-pressure system remained centered over the Mojave Desert. Santa Ana recorded .32 inches, boosting the two-day total to .58 after four months of bone-dry days. Newport Beach registered .02 inches on a day when the high hit 74 and the low 62.

Lifeguard Finn McClafferty at Huntington State Beach said winds blew the cloud cover away about 2 p.m. and that the sky kept getting brighter as the afternoon progressed. Still, most people had given up on going to the beaches earlier in the day, making for “a pretty slow day,” he said.

In Santa Ana and most of the rest of the county, black clouds hung on tenaciously through the day.

The National Weather Service said the sky could clear today, with the highs likely to be in the mid- and upper 70s in the coastal areas, possibly getting into the low 80s by Saturday.

The mountains and deserts also should have clearing weather over the weekend, with mountain high temperatures ranging from 65 to 75 by Saturday and southern desert high temperatures mostly in the 90s. The northern deserts should be in the 80s on Saturday.

Although early September usually brings warm and placid days to California as a whole, the weather service pointed out that the current pattern is typical of late fall or early winter. Computer forecasts indicate that the weather will be cooler and wetter than normal through next week at least, and possibly for several weeks.

That, forecasters said, is because high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska has pushed the jet stream southward, bringing rain-producing storm systems toward the state.

“On the good-news side,” the weather service said, “light rain would reduce the fire danger over the grass and woodland areas around the state. On the bad-news side . . . rainfall at this critical time of the year can cause great damage to many of the prime cash crops.”

The weather service’s extended forecast called for considerable cloudiness in the Southland by Monday, with a chance of showers through Tuesday, and highs in the 60s.

Weekend boaters should have fair sailing. The forecast calls for winds of 10 to 16 knots and swells of 1 to 2 feet in inland waters today and west to northwest winds of 10 to 20 knots, as well as 4- to 6-foot seas in outer waters through tonight.

Surf will be 2 to 3 feet along most Southland beaches today and Saturday.