Puddle-Hopping Is Possibility on Leap Day Weekend

It may well pay to look before you leap outside this leap day weekend, forecasters say.

Showers are possible through Sunday and could even linger through Monday, the 29th of February.

“It’s not the kind of weekend where you’d want to have all your relatives come in to Los Angeles,” said Dan Bowman of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The first round of rain could begin late this afternoon, as a low-pressure system off Baja California moves northeast into the Southland. The chance of showers is 30% to 40%, with no more than a quarter of an inch expected.

By sunrise Saturday, any precipitation should stop and temperatures are expected to reach the upper 60s to 70 degrees during the day, with light winds and partly cloudy skies.

On Sunday, a second, somewhat stronger storm system may reach Los Angeles from the mid-Pacific. Late Thursday the system was about 1,000 miles west of San Francisco. The chance of rain during the day Sunday is slightly less than 50%, Bowman said, with temperatures expected in the mid-60s and winds gusting to 20 m.p.h.

On Monday, the leap day, forecasters say, it is unlikely that better weather will make up for the lost weekend.

“It depends on how fast the system moves, but I would say there may be some lingering showers and then partly cloudy skies,” Bowman said.

Thus far, only .64 of an inch of rain has fallen this month at the Los Angeles Civic Center, considerably less than usual for the normally gloomy month of February.

In much of Northern and Central California, not one drop of rain has fallen yet this month. The last fully dry February in San Francisco was recorded 124 years ago; and in Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and dozens of other cities, there are no completely dry months of February on record, according to the National Weather Service.

The leap day, though, could play a part in averting the unprecedented dryness, the Weather Service said. While forecasters said there is a chance of rain in San Francisco and the Central Valley this weekend, some areas may not be hit by showers until Monday, .

Palm Springs, at 88, was the warmest place in the nation Thursday. Thursday’s Los Angeles Civic Center high was 82, 13 degrees above normal for Feb. 25. The relative humidity ranged from 19% to 83%.