Warm Welcome Likely for Autumn’s Arrival

Autumn will ease into Southern California this weekend behind a camouflage of sunny skies and rising temperatures, the National Weather Service said.

A storm system that filled the final days of summer with cold wind and thundershowers was growling into oblivion through Arizona and New Mexico on Thursday, and meteorologists said its like may not be seen again here--at least for a while.

Another weak low-pressure system was hovering off the coast of Oregon, apparently on track for Central California, but forecasters said it should produce nothing more fearsome than a little variable cloudiness along the coast and in the mountains.

Meanwhile, a warming trend was already making itself felt.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center reached 77 degrees Thursday, with relative humidity ranging from 42% to 70%. And the Weather Service said it should be four or five degrees warmer today, with the trend continuing into the weekend.

Surf should be up today--particularly on south-facing beaches--with breakers to six feet on a 14-second interval and only a slight calming predicted through the weekend. Water temperature was expected to be in the mid-60s, seven or eight degrees cooler than the air, with a sea breeze rising to 16 m.p.h. in early afternoon.

Variable winds were expected to become west to southwest and rise to 18 knots at times over the inner waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border, while yachtsmen venturing farther out can look for west-to-northwest winds of 15 knots in the afternoon, with combined seas to eight feet.