Southern California in a cool, rainy pattern for the next week — if not longer
It's not even April yet, but Angelenos may be getting an early taste of May Gray and June Gloom over the next several days.
Forecasters are predicting a significant stretch of below-average temperatures with a chance for precipitation.
'It's going to be at least a week — eight or nine days — of this off-and-on rainy and cool pattern," said Mike Wofford, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard. 'We're going to be cooler than normal probably through next week, so get used it."
Temperatures are expected to remain in the 60s, several degrees below normal, for the next week or so. The average for this time of year is around 71 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, Wofford said. Friday's high was expected to reach 66 degrees, before falling over the weekend.
'We're running anywhere from about 3 to 8 degrees below normal, and it's going to stay that way or even get a little cooler," Wofford said.
A series of storms from the Pacific Northwest are driving this cool, cloudy and wet pattern, the first of which could draw precipitation into the Southland by Sunday.
But it's only supposed to bring light rain, possibly up to a tenth of an inch in some areas, Wofford said. And even though there's a chance for more storms next week, he said it's unlikely any would bring the week's total above half an inch.
However, with the forecast still a bit uncertain, the possibility for some heavy rainfall is not completely ruled out, according to the weather service modeling.
Though the rainfall is a particularly dreary start for April, the shift in weather could bring some relief to Southern California's dry landscape, which remains in severe drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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