Night and Morning Clouds : More of Same in Store for Weekend’s Weather

With a definite lack of originality, the weekend weather forecast for San Diego looks something like this: night and morning low clouds clearing to afternoon sunshine.

The warm and muggy weather of midweek will fade out today, according to National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara. This “intrusion of subtropical heat” will be replaced by the typical June pattern of cloudy mornings and sunny afternoons.

There is a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms in the mountains and deserts today as the last of the subtropical pattern moves through, he said.

“The thunderstorms and mugginess are both to be expected with this subtropical weather pattern,” Shigehara said. “It has also been responsible for the high clouds and quite warm days we’ve been having. For instance, temperatures have been in the upper 80s in the mountains the last few days, and that’s pretty darn warm.”

A thermal low-pressure system, the same kind of pattern responsible for most of May’s cloudy days here, is starting to develop over the deserts, according to Shigehara. Such a system pulls in the coastal clouds, which works to cool off the 100-plus temperatures in the desert regions.

“We’re seeing a shift now,” he said. “In the middle of the week we saw the warmer-than-usual temperatures in our coastal, inland, and mountain regions Now we’ll have the extremely warm temperatures in the deserts.”

The high at Lindbergh Field reached 79 degrees Thursday, well above the 70-degree norm for this time of year but still nine degrees short of the record for that date. The weekend highs at the airport are expected to hover around 70, according to Shigehara.

Coastal areas will have some morning fog along with the low clouds, with afternoon clearing a little slower than in the inland areas. Coastal highs will be in the 66- to 72-degree range through Sunday, with overnight lows in the upper 50s and low 60s.

Surf will be in the two- to three-foot range, with ocean water temperature near 64.

Inland areas will have some variable high clouds in the afternoon hours, with highs between 85 and 92 today, cooling to the 77- to 87-degree range Saturday and Sunday. Lows will be in the 55- to 65-degree range.

Mountains will have highs between 77 and 85 today through Sunday and lows in the upper 40s and low 50s. Deserts will have highs between 98 and 105 today, warming up to the 102- to 110-degree range Saturday and Sunday. Lows will be in the 70s.

“We are going to be very close to normal conditions all weekend long,” Shigehara said. “We’ll get some of the morning clouds and fog, the afternoon clearing, and quite seasonal temperatures.”