Cooler temperatures — and maybe some showers — headed to SoCal this weekend, but the weather pattern that has brought record-breaking temperatures to California through the last few months could be breaking up into three or more distinct shifts.
The most recent, with temperatures in the 80s by week’s end, was not surprising given that a strong, high pressure system over the Pacific Ocean pushed the air away from the Southern California peninsula.
With that system now weakening, the chance of heat and humidity — as well as a potential Santa Ana wind event — will probably decrease this weekend, and that could cool things off a bit, meteorologists said. It also helps explain the fact that so many of our recent record-setting temperatures in California are during the day.
The shift in the weather on Sunday (Friday in Los Angeles, but Sunday in the rest of the state) will bring an influx of cold air, possibly with showers, to the region.
But it will also bring some heat, perhaps with a Santa Ana or a warm-pass mix, meteorologists said.
“This shift looks like a slow-moving but strong, high-pressure system that’s moving over the southern Pacific Ocean,” said meteorologist Eric Holthaus with the National Weather Service. “It’s breaking up into three parts, and there’s a lot of activity developing over Southern California.”
An example of the type of weather that will develop this weekend is shown on the map above. It’s in the center of the map:
But with the shift in weather, it will bring a bit more of the cold air to the region than at other times of the year.
A similar map is shown below:
There are also chances for a slight cooling Monday.
“If the system is breaking up over Southern California, there’s going to be a chance of rain,” Holthaus said. “This will be a little bit more widespread in nature, that is, you’re going to see some rain with a chance that there will even be some showers.”
The main issue Sunday is the chances for a Santa Ana or Santa Ana wind event, which the National Weather Service defines as a “low level flow of moist air from the Central Pacific Basin that typically
