Winds to Ruin Weekend That Starts Off Nice

Redondo Beach and Avalon Harbor hold onto your hats.

The same strong winds and rough seas that battered Redondo Beach’s Municipal Pier, closed Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island and kept the U.S. Coast Guard extremely busy with rescues last weekend are preparing for a return engagement, forecasters said.

“This may be a carbon copy of last weekend,” said Dan Beusterien, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “A cold front will come in gently, but it will pack an extra punch late Saturday when an upper-level storm system catches up with it.”

A pressure differential between a high-pressure system over the Pacific and the cold front moving slowly into California will generate winds up to 30 m.p.h. Sunday. In mountain areas, winds will howl at speeds between 30 and 40 m.p.h.

“Sunday will have a lot of low clouds, fog and possibly a little drizzle in mountain areas,” Beusterien said.

Temperatures today, however, will give no indication of the troubles that lie ahead. The mercury should reach 84 in downtown Los Angeles, three degrees warmer than Thursday’s high of 81.

On Saturday, downtown Los Angeles will reach a high between the upper 70s and low 80s, and the high in coastal areas will be in the low 70s.

High temperatures in inland areas will range between the mid-80s and the low 90s.

On Sunday, highs will drop to the mid-60s and mid-70s. Inland areas will reach highs near 80.