Forecast Is About the Same for the Weekend, but a Little Cooler

Weather forecasters predicted cool, cloudy mornings and warm afternoons--with moderate winds offshore and in the mountains and deserts--for the coming weekend in Southern California.

Matt Sullivan, meteorologist and spokesman for Earth Environment Service, a private forecasting firm based in San Francisco, said there should be no surprises.

“It’s a pretty typical summer weather pattern for this part of the world,” he said. “You can expect night and morning low cloudiness and fog along the coast, with perhaps a little bit of local drizzle in the Los Angeles Basin, and afternoons a little cooler than the middle part of the week.”

The National Weather Service agreed, adding that an upper atmospheric disturbance will be moving across the northern part of the state and into Nevada today, helping to depress temperatures and spread the morning cloudiness into the inland valleys.

Thursday’s high temperature in Santa Ana reached 81 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 45% to 87%. Elsewhere in the county, the mercury topped out at 80 in Fullerton and 82 in Mission Viejo. Along the coast, however, most readings were in the upper 60s under sunny skies.

Forecasters said that today should be three or four degrees cooler in the county, with another degree or two of cooling expected as the weekend continues.

Clouds were expected to hang around the beaches well into the afternoon every day, with surf running about three feet, air temperature reaching the upper 60s each afternoon and water temperature only two or three degrees cooler.

A small craft advisory was in effect Thursday afternoon, warning of northwest winds to 25 knots and four-foot seas over outer waters from Point Conception to San Clemente Island, and the weather service said boaters who stay closer to shore can look for southwest winds to 25 knots in the afternoon, with choppy, three-foot seas.