Sunny Spring Days to Hang On for a Spell

The warm and windy spring weather that descended upon Southern California during the last couple of days can be expected to last through the weekend and into the coming week, forecasters said Thursday.

Weather patterns established in midweek, they said, will continue for a time because of a static pressure pattern along the coast.

“A high-pressure ridge over the extreme eastern Pacific is stationary,” said Cary Schudy, meteorologist-spokesman for Earth Environment Service, a private forecasting agency based in San Francisco. “It can be expected to stay in place through the weekend--and that means what you see is what you get: sunny days, clear nights and a little wind.”

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Thursday reached 78 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 20% to 52%.

And the National Weather Service said today should be pretty much the same, with some local gusty winds below the canyons.

Beach weather is expected to include a little patchy fog in the night and morning hours, clearing up by mid-morning with highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s; surf moderate at 3 to 5 feet in most locations, water temperature in the upper 50s and sea breezes to 15 m.p.h. at times in the afternoon.

Weekend sailors were told to expect southwest to west winds rising to 14 knots with 3-foot seas during the afternoons from Point Conception to the Mexican border, shifting around north to northwest and freshening to 20 knots farther out.

Afternoon high temperatures into the mid-50s from overnight lows in the subfreezing range are forecast for Southern California mountains, with sunny days and northeast winds to 35 m.p.h. around ridges and through passes, while fair skies, overnight freezing and gusty winds at higher elevations are forecast for the Sierra.

Desert skies are expected to remain fair with afternoon temperatures into the mid-70s in the high desert and into the mid-80s in the low desert (overnight lows to within a degree or two of freezing) and local northerly winds rising to 30 m.p.h.