Cooler Days, Fog Forecast for Weekend

Southern California’s daytime temperatures will be a degree or two cooler and the nights filled with low clouds and fog through the weekend, the National Weather Service said Thursday.

But afternoons will be mostly sunny and clear.

The high temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Thursday was 76 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 48% to 90%, and forecasters predicted that the high will be in about the same range today, Saturday and Sunday--with perhaps a bit more cooling during the early part of the next week.

High Hits 74

In Santa Ana, the high was 74 degrees Thursday after an overnight low of 52, while in Newport Beach the high was a cool 66 degrees.

The upper-air flow pattern is changing, meteorologists explained, and a cold front passing through Southern California will provide a few areas of dense fog, with night and morning low clouds.

Beaches will be overcast and rather cool during the morning hours, the weather service said, with a few clouds hanging on through the afternoons to keep temperatures in the high 60s (just a degree or two warmer than the ocean), while surf is expected to run two to four feet in most places with sea breezes rising to 18 m.p.h. in the afternoon.

Southwesterly winds to 15 knots and two-to-three-foot westerly swells were predicted for inner coastal waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border, while those venturing farther from shore found a small-craft advisory in effect Thursday for seas to 12 feet and northwest winds to 18 knots. The wind was expected to rise to 25 knots or more and the seas to 15 feet overnight, with more of the same expected through the weekend.

Local gusty west-to-northwest winds were also expected in Southern California mountains, where a temperature range from the low 60s in the afternoons to below freezing each night was forecast for resort levels. The Sierra was braced for rain, with the snow level pegged at 6,000 feet in the north to 7,000 in the south.

Forecasters predicted generally fair skies for the deserts, with south-to-southwest winds hitting 30 m.p.h. in the high desert today, shifting northerly and dropping to 25 m.p.h. gusts Saturday and moving around to the northwest by Sunday. Northern desert temperatures will reach the upper 60s or lower 70s, while the southern deserts can expect afternoon readings in the low 80s.