Showers Head for the Hills : Sunny Skies Predicted for Weekend

Thundershowers that hammered Southern California with lightning, hail and brief but torrential rains during the earlier part of the week grumbled away toward the Rocky Mountains on Thursday, and the National Weather Service predicted sunny skies for the weekend.

Moist, tropical air that wandered up from the Sea of Cortez was still able to form an occasional shower over the southern Sierra and in the Owens Valley on Thursday afternoon, but meteorologists said it was just a parting hiccup.

Thursday’s high temperatures ranged from a warm and humid 82 degrees in San Juan Capistrano to 81 degrees in Santa Ana and 74 degrees in Newport Beach, with lows in the mid-60s. The Weather Service said there should be few changes before the middle of next week.

Night and morning low clouds were expected to give way to mostly sunny days, with highs in the 70s in coastal valleys, climbing to the low 80s inland.

Orange County beaches were expected to see fair weather (overlooking the usual night and early morning low clouds) for the next few days, with temperatures reaching the mid-70s most days, afternoon sea breezes at 10 to 16 m.p.h., surf running two to three feet on a 12-second interval and water temperature about 10 degrees cooler than the air.

Weekend yachtsmen who stick close to shore can expect southwest to west winds to 18 knots in the afternoon with a two-foot southwest swell from Point Concepcion to the Mexican border, while those venturing farther west may find winds variable, running less than 10 knots with three- to five-foot seas.

Mountain resorts should find the weekend invigorating, the weather service said, with only a few late-night low clouds in the otherwise fair skies, temperatures to the 70s most afternoons and local winds occasionally gusting to 25 m.p.h.

The last few thundershowers could still be lingering here and there in the desert, meteorologists said, but skies were expected to turn increasingly fair. Local winds could gust to 30 m.p.h. at times, forecasters said, but otherwise the weekend should be near-perfect, with northern deserts starting the weekend with highs in the high 90s, rising past 100 degrees on Sunday, and southern desert temperatures nearing 110 every day.