L.A. weather outlook: Small chance of rain, then temperatures in the 80s
Umbrellas are out on the USC campus as a rain storm descends on Los Angeles on March 11.
After a slight chance of rain late Sunday, Los Angeles County will see unseasonably warm temperatures this week.
On Sunday night and into Monday morning, there’s a 20% chance of rain, forecasters said.
“At best, we’re looking at less than a tenth of an inch,” said David Sweet, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
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A ridge of high pressure - conditions that bring sun and warmth - will then take over the West Coast, Sweet said. Average temperatures in the valleys will rise to the 80s and in some places, 90 degrees or more, Sweet said. The average temperature for March is in the low 70s.
Up north, the weather has been wetter. A storm system that arrived Wednesday has dumped rain and snow all across Northern California. Parts of the Sierras have seen up to 10 inches of rain over the last five days, said Travis Wilson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The storms, along with active storms last weekend, have helped boost the mountain snowpack, which supplies the state with water through the dry summer months.
As of Friday, snowpack levels in the northern Sierras were 87% of normal, with levels in the central and southern Sierra at 85% and 77% of normal, respectively. Snowpack levels should be higher after significant snowfall over the weekend, Wilson said, but updated figures weren’t available.
However, an index of measurements at eight stations around the Northern Sierra shows that rain and snow levels were at 125% of normal as of Sunday morning, said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. Ski resorts in the area are also reporting one to two feet of additional snow that fell over the weekend, Kurth said.
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