Showers May Dampen College Football Showdown

Regardless of the outcome of the UCLA-USC football showdown on Saturday, forecasters said it may rain on the victory party of either the Bruins or the Trojans.

Mike Smith of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said a low-pressure system in the Pacific--about 1,000 miles west of San Francisco on Thursday--was headed for Southern California. With nothing to block its path, the front edge of the system should reach the Los Angeles Basin by tonight, bringing with it a chance, initially, of thunderstorms.

The showers may hang around until early Saturday evening, several hours after the Rose Bowl decider is over at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Smith said the storm may not be a major one--”maybe as much as a third of an inch of rain”--but football fans and others who are outdoors on Saturday should pack some rain gear. Heavier rainfall is expected in the local mountains, he said.

And more showers could reach the Southland by Sunday night, the National Weather Service added.

So far, 3.60 inches of rain have been recorded at the Los Angeles Civic Center this season, slightly below last year’s total of 3.62 for Nov. 19. Normal rainfall to date is 1.70.

Despite the chance of rain, temperatures should be comfortable with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s and 50s, the weather service said.

Thursday’s Civic Center high was a dry 82 degrees with an overnight low of 57. Relative humidity ranged from 51% to 17%.

Smith had this bright note for Southland football enthusiasts fretting about Saturday’s weather: Snow flurries with temperatures in the 20s are expected for the traditional Ohio State-Michigan game at Ann Arbor, Mich., and the high at Lincoln, Neb., may not even reach the lows 50s by game time for the Oklahoma-Nebraska battle.