In Case You’ve Forgotten, That Was Sun in the Sky

And then, there was sunshine.

Southern California basked in a lot of the comfortable stuff Friday as the remnants of a Pacific storm pushed into Arizona and Nevada after dumping 1.04 inches of rain at Los Angeles Civic Center on Wednesday and Thursday.

The rainfall brought the season’s total to 3.51 inches, well ahead of last season’s total of 2.68 inches on Nov. 6. Normal precipitation for this date is 0.87 of an inch.

Other rainfall amounts from Thursday’s precipitation in the Los Angeles area included .92 in Beaumont; .74 in El Toro; .30 in Long Beach; 1.34 in Monrovia; .89 in Pasadena, and 1.27 in San Bernardino.

Forecasters said a growing high-pressure system that followed the rain into Southern California should make the weekend pleasant, with daytime high temperatures ranging from 66 to the low 70s. Overnight lows could be a little chilly, dipping into the low 50s in most places and into the high 40s in the inland valleys.

The weather service said the high temperatures might even get into the 80s by Monday or Tuesday.

Friday’s high at the Civic Center was 69 degrees, with an overnight low of 53. Relative humidity ranged from 53% to 90%.

Meanwhile, rangers at the Death Valley National Monument worked to reopen the vast area after the eastward-moving weather front, which featured some occasionally heavy thunderstorms, closed three state highways and virtually cut off access from the outside world. An estimated 5,000 visitors were stranded in some areas of Death Valley on Thursday night, said National Monument information officer Ross Hopkins.