Warmer Temperatures Forecast Next Week : Cloudy but Dry Weather Expected for Weekend

High cloudiness and some patchy fog along the coast should be the worst the weather gets in Orange County through the weekend, forecasters said Thursday.

Although an approaching upper-level trough will deepen the marine layer and bring slightly cooler weather to Southern California today and Saturday, the National Weather Service said no rain is expected “at least through the first of next week.”

Meteorologist Pat Cooper of WeatherData, which provides forecasts to The Times, said there is a “very slight chance of drizzle” today and Saturday, but she did not expect it to materialize.

“It all depends on how deep that marine layer gets,” she said, adding that after Saturday, when onshore winds will give way to breezes coming from inland, “it should warm up just a little.”

Monday and Tuesday, she added, should be sunny and warmer, in Orange County as well as the rest of the Los Angeles area.

The National Weather Service said Los Angeles’ high temperatures should be in the low 60s today and in the upper 50s Saturday. Southland readings should range from 58 to 73 Sunday through Tuesday.

Thursday’s Los Angeles Civic Center high was 66 degrees after an overnight low of 43. The high relative humidity was 80%, and the low was 33%.

The mountains and deserts will have the same high cloudiness, with high temperatures at the mountain resorts of 44 to 50 today and 36 to 46 Saturday. Maximum readings in the high deserts should be 58 to 66 today, 52 to 62 Saturday. In the lower deserts, the highs will be 68 to 75 today and 64 to 70 Saturday.

The surf is expected to be 2 feet high along beaches in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties and 3 feet along shorelines in Orange and San Diego Counties.