Warmer Weather, Showers to Precede Next Cold Snap

A storm approaching from the southwest is bringing warmer air and rain to some areas of San Diego County, but by early next week temperatures will dip again, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures along the San Diego coast Wednesday reached a high of 58-63 degrees and a low of 45-50.

“The storm will weaken during the weekend or early next week. By Tuesday and Wednesday, it will dip back down into the middle 20s,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Wilbur Shigehara. “We’ll even see some frost here in San Diego, right down to the beach. The cold is not over; that’s the bottom line.”

The higher temperatures partly accounted for a decline in natural gas use Wednesday, but the supply of natural gas is still low, said Tom Murnane, spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric.

Customers Responsive to Request to Cut Usage

On Tuesday, after a record use of the fuel by customers on Monday, SDG&E; asked its customers to cut back on the use of natural gas to conserve the supply. Monday, customers used 348 million cubic feet of natural gas; on Tuesday, customers used 309 million cubic feet, Murnane said.

“Customers were very responsive, and there was a substantial reduction in gas use,” Murnane said. “Some was attributed to the weather, but the majority was due to conservation by customers. We asked for the reduction to assure that we would have enough to meet basic needs of all our residential customers, and it worked.”

Natural gas supplies to utilities in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas are still being curtailed, and only the weather will determine when those curtailments will end, said gas company officials.

“It’s dependent on the weather,” said Rick Terrell, spokesman for the Southern California Gas Co. in Los Angeles, which imports gas through its lines into San Diego. “Curtailment may very possibly be expanded to other customers, such as large industries, hotels and universities who can burn alternate fuels.