Jet Stream’s Shift Should Warm Area

The San Fernando Valley should be enjoying a gradual warming trend now that the jet stream that brought the region a blast of frigid polar air has shifted back to the north.

“This one won’t be a cold one like we experienced last week,” said Stuart Seto, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Light showers are expected for today and should end Tuesday, Seto said. Skies should be partly cloudy Wednesday and then clearing with high temperatures in the mid-70s on Thursday.

The jet stream, which last week traveled down the California coast and through the Southland, brought polar air to Los Angeles, Seto said. The cold allowed snow flurries in mountain areas as low as 1,500 feet. But any snow that falls in the area this week will not be seen below 6,000 feet, he said.

Also expected to help warm up the weather is a high-pressure system due late in the week. When a high-pressure system hovers over the area, cold, rainy weather is usually blocked out and temperatures climb.

The recent precipitation has helped the area catch up with average rainfall amounts for the season. Since July, Los Angeles has had 9.55 inches of rain, compared with an average accumulation of 11.11 inches by this time of year. Still, those figures are much closer than they were in December, when rainfall was about six inches less than normal, Seto said.

For today, high temperatures are expected to be 64 in Northridge and Van Nuys, 65 in Burbank and 68 in Woodland Hills. Lows will be in the upper 40s.