Weekend Weather : Sunny Skies but High Tides, Waves Forecast

A sunny and clear weekend is forecast for San Diego after possible light showers and fog that might delay some flights and cause rush-hour traffic problems this morning.

Thick fog that rolled off the ocean early Thursday caused cancellation of some flights at Lindbergh Field and delayed others. “We had about 20 cancellations, and departures were held up almost an hour on Thursday,” airport manager Bud McDonald said. Because of the fog, the airport opened at 7:20 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m., he said.

Today’s fog was expected to lift by mid-morning, according to National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara. “Saturday and Sunday mornings will have nice, clear skies,” he said.

A 30% chance of light showers from a Pacific storm was forecast for today, but the weather was expected to be dry Saturday. Light rain from another storm is predicted Sunday night.

Sunday should also be clear until clouds arrive in the afternoon. “Sunday’s storm is also expected to be a light one, only dumping about 0.10 inch of rain,” Shigehara said.

Shigehara said the big weather news for the weekend is high tides and waves. Tides are expected to reach 6.9 feet today and decrease only slightly through the weekend but should pose no danger to buildings along the coast, he said.

Danger Warning

However, Shigehara warned that high tides will combine with big surf to produce waves reaching six to eight feet and making the coast dangerous over the weekend.

Coastal high temperatures will range from 63 to 69 degrees today, decreasing to 60 to 66 Saturday before rising to 62 to 70 Sunday. Low temperatures will range from 42 to 49 all three days, according to Mike Smith, a meteorologist at WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

Inland valley areas will have high temperatures from 65 to 72 today, 63 to 69 Saturday and 64 to 74 in Sunday. Low temperatures will be from 40 to 48 degrees all three days. Winds will be 15 to 25 m.p.h. in mountain areas through the weekend. High temperatures will range from 45 to 53 today, dropping to 40 to 49 degrees on Saturday, and up again on Sunday, from 45 to 52. Lows all three days will be from 30 to 38.

Deserts will be fairly mild through Sunday, with highs from 65 to 75 today, 62 to 68 on Saturday and 65 to 72 on Sunday. Lows will range from 42 to 48 through Sunday.