Rainstorm Sets the Stage for a Soggy Weekend

The tail of an eastbound storm turned out to be wetter than the forecasters had expected early Thursday, dampening Southern California with a parting shot of rain and setting the stage for more showers over the weekend.

A new storm was gathering strength as it crawled down out of the Gulf of Alaska and was expected to turn inland over the north-central section of the state Sunday morning. It should be close enough by Saturday afternoon to give the Southland a 30% chance of rain.

The odds will improve considerably Saturday night and Sunday, the National Weather Service reported. Monday and Tuesday should be mostly clear.

On Thursday, as the latest storm left a soggy blanket of rain and snow across Northern California and into the Sierra Nevada, downtown Los Angeles recorded another .09 of an inch to add to the .04 it received Wednesday.

That brought the Civic Center’s season total to 11.43, just slightly below the seasonal normal of 11.70.

Initially, the weather service expected as much as half an inch of rain on Wednesday and had not looked for much on Thursday.

Today is expected to be variably cloudy with the Los Angeles high temperature about 64 degrees. Thursday’s Civic Center high was 63. The overnight low was 45. Relative humidity ranged from a high of 77% to 48%.

Northern California is threatened with another round of thundershowers and snow today after being hit with plenty of both on Wednesday. Nearly a foot of snow fell in six hours in the Lake Tahoe area.

The community of Norden, northwest of the lake in Nevada County, had a total of 110 inches on the ground at 9 a.m. Thursday. About 2 feet of it had fallen during the previous 24 hours.

There was even some snow Wednesday in the San Francisco area.

With the new system headed this way, Southern California mountain areas are likely to have increasing cloudiness late today with a chance of rain Saturday afternoon and Sunday. The snow level is expected to be down to 5,000 feet by Sunday. Resort highs should be 38 to 46 today and 34 to 38 on Saturday.

Deserts are expected to be variably cloudy through Sunday with a slight chance of showers in the northern sections. There should be gusty winds on Sunday. Upper desert highs should be 50 to 58 today, warming to 58 to 68 by Sunday. Lower desert highs should be 68 to 74 today, warming on Sunday to a range of 68 to 78.

Out on the ocean, the inner waters should have light variable winds becoming 10 to 16 knots late today. Outer waters should have south to southeast winds 12 to 18 knots and combined seas 5 to 10 feet.

Surf should be 2 to 3 feet from Zuma Beach to Mission Beach today and Saturday.