Cooling Trend Will Set Tone for the Weekend

Today will be a lot like yesterday and tomorrow will be a little like today. That may sound like a cryptic message from a fortune cookie, but weather-wise it’s perfectly clear--at least until Saturday.

Sunny skies and moderate temperatures similar to Thursday’s will continue today, but a cooling trend from the Pacific Northwest and clouds moving in tonight will set the tone for the rest of the weekend, National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara said.

A 20% chance of drizzle or light rain is predicted for Sunday morning.

The cooling trend will not present anything “really serious,” Shigehara said, but added that the thermostat’s weeklong effort to rise above 60 degrees will be lost.

High-Pressure System

“We struggled all week to get above 60 degrees, and, just as we started to warm up Wednesday and level off, an incoming high-pressure system will knock it down again this weekend,” he said.

El Cajon did report a high of 66 on Thursday, but Lindbergh Field was a brisk 60, about 6 degrees cooler than normal for this time of year, Shigehara said. In fact, the coast and inland areas had trouble rising above the mid-50s all week--although no records were broken--and frost repeatedly blanketed agricultural areas at night, he said.

“People have been complaining to us for days now about the weather. These cool temperatures are a continuation of a pattern we’ve had for the past five months.”

“We haven’t seen a normal temperature this month yet,” Shigehara said. “It’s not people’s imaginations that it’s cold. We’re averaging 3 degrees below the norm right now.”

The lower-than-usual temperatures have caused a dramatic increase in natural gas use, and conservation measures were taken last week to avert a shortage, said Tom Murnane, a spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

“Last week there was a danger that we might have a natural gas shortage, so we took the very unusual step of asking residential customers to conserve, in addition to curtailing our commercial and industrial customers,” Murnane said. “We asked them to set their thermostats at 60 degrees instead of the normal 68 and to wear a sweater or take other steps to warm up.”

“There are no problems this week,” he said. “The situation has improved.”

Murnane said that natural gas consumption on Valentine’s Day was 265 million cubic feet, up 125 million cubic feet from Valentine’s Day last year.

Coastal and inland highs today will range from 60 to 66 degrees, dipping to 56 to 62 on Saturday and to 55 to 60 on Sunday, Shigehara said. Low clouds will be noticeable by tonight and dominate most of Saturday, except for brief sunshine in the afternoon.

Overnight lows for the coast will be between 45 and 52 tonight and Saturday night. Lows both nights for the inland areas will range from 35 to 45.

The ocean temperature is 54. The surf is at 3 feet and may rise to 4 feet by Sunday.

The mountains will be clear, with highs today ranging from 45 to 50, decreasing to 38 to 46 Saturday and from 35 to 40 degrees Sunday. Lows will range from 23 to 28 tonight and Saturday.

Today’s highs in the deserts will be 68 to 75 and 64 to 70 Saturday.