Springy Weekend Due for the County

Even though spring doesn’t officially begin for another month, San Diegans will enjoy a springlike, sunny and warm weekend, forecasters say.

The storm that passed through San Diego Wednesday night dropped 0.08 of an inch of rain at Lindbergh Field and 3 inches of snow on Mt. Laguna. Elsewhere in the county, 0.48 of an inch of rain fell on Mt. Palomar, 0.21 in Escondido, 0.09 in Chula Vista and 0.17 in La Mesa.

The sticky powder that fell with the rain in Riverside, San Bernardino and parts of northern San Diego County was merely wind-borne alkali and desert dust, the South Coast Air Quality Management District concluded Thursday.

AQMD Deputy Director Jim Birakos said laboratory analysis of the stuff that spotted car finishes and other surfaces late Wednesday showed that it was not acidic and apparently not harmful to humans.

Birakos said there were reports that “a burst of storms” Wednesday lifted a huge volume of alkali from the bed of Owens Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert and carried it aloft with 60 m.p.h. winds.

This weekend San Diego will be protected from clouds and coastal winds because of a high-pressure system in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Temperatures, however, will be moderate. In both coastal and inland areas today the temperature should not top 70 degrees, said Wilbur Shigehara, a National Weather Service forecaster, and 72 on Saturday.

By Sunday, inland valleys may reach 77 degrees, and coastal temperatures will be about 73.

Nighttime temperatures through Sunday in the coastal areas will be in the mid-40s, and around 40 inland.