Cool Days, Even Colder Nights Are on the Way

Friday wasn’t the coldest day Southern California ever had, but with stiff breezes blowing down off new snow on the mountains, it was no scorcher.

Chilly, 25-m.p.h. northeast gusts in coastal areas eased by evening, giving weekend temperatures a chance to rise slightly--but not much--from Friday’s Los Angeles Civic Center high of 54 degrees.

Nights will continue to be cold through the weekend with lows in the 30s and 40s, according to the National Weather Service.

Today’s outlook is for some sunshine and partial cloudiness, but Dave Beusterien, meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times, said a weak upper-level storm system in Northern California means “a slight chance” of showers today.

He conceded the system might miss the Southland altogether. In any event, he said, it should be out of the area by tonight, leaving Sunday clear.

Season Total

The weak storm front that fluttered through here Thursday dropped .63 of an inch of rain at the Civic Center, bringing the season total to 5.27 inches and for the first time outdoing the normal season-to-date figure, 5.02.

The California Highway Patrol finally reopened Interstate 5 over the Grapevine north of Los Angeles early Friday afternoon after snow forced its closure at 1:25 a.m. Groups of motorists were led through by CHP escorts beginning about 3:30 a.m., but efforts to open the highway Friday morning were abandoned after a couple of accidents.

The low temperature in downtown Los Angeles early Friday was 47 degrees. For the record, it got down to 30 degrees on the same date in 1913, when the reading never got above 47.

Friday’s high relative humidity reading in Los Angeles was 100%. The low was 32%.