A rainy Mother’s Day? Scattered thunderstorms expected through the weekend
Southern California skies will remain gray into the weekend as a storm moves through the area, bringing occasional heavy downpours to the mountains and a chance of scattered showers along the coast and in the valleys.
“Cloudy, rainy, sad face,” Kristen Stewart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said in summing up the Southland’s weekend outlook.
A low-pressure system brought rain and thunderstorms to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California’s interior mountain ranges Friday morning.
Heavy downpours along with isolated thunderstorms triggered flooding on some roads around Bakersfield, while about a quarter of an inch of rain fell in Gorman, along the Grapevine section of the 5 Freeway. A flash-flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service in parts of Kern County near Wasco and Shafter.
The storm is moving counterclockwise and is expected to bring brief heavy downpours with small amounts of hail and a slight chance of thunderstorms into northeast San Luis Obispo County and the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County.
The weather service issued a flood advisory for Santa Barbara County through early afternoon, with the heaviest rainfall expected to affect the Santa Ynez Valley to just east of the Whittier fire burn scar. County officials told residents to avoid creeks and streams.
The Southland’s interior areas, including the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, are expected to face the brunt of the storm — with up to 2 inches of rain expected, Stewart said.
The system will bring scattered showers to Los Angeles County’s coast and valleys through Sunday, but it should be limited to half an inch of rain, she said.
The front will move southeast, away from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, on Saturday. The Los Angeles Basin will have a slight chance of showers Saturday that should taper off by Sunday, and clear skies are expected to start next week, according to the weather service.
People should keep their hoodies handy, though, as Southern California continues its transition from a wet winter into a gray spring. Temperatures this weekend are expected to be in the low to mid-50s at night and the upper 60s to low 70s during the day.
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