Orange County dries out and warms up into the weekend, but temperatures remain below average

After the last bout of rain petered out Thursday, conditions should dry out while temperatures hover in the 60s in Orange County through the weekend.

Pockets of showers, thunder and pea-sized hail persisted into Thursday. By that afternoon, about 0.60 inches of precipitation had come down in Fountain Valley, and 0.25 inches had fallen in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

Thursday was expected to be the coldest day of the week, according to the National Weather Service. Daytime temperatures should be three to five degrees higher Friday in coastal and valley communities.

Warming should continue into Saturday, but temperatures will still be about 5 degrees below average for this time of year. That should be the warmest day of the week, with highs reaching 62 degrees in Laguna Beach, 64 degrees in Newport Beach, 65 degrees in Huntington Beach, 66 degrees in Costa Mesa and 67 degrees in Fountain Valley.

Clouds should clear up on Friday and sunny skies were expected to persist through Saturday. There is a very slight chance of rain on Monday.

“There’s maybe a 10 or 15 percent chance on Monday, and maybe a tenth of an inch if that,” National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Adams said. “Other than that, we should be mostly dry through the middle of next week.”

Conditions should be noticeably cooler by Monday, according to forecasts. Lower temperatures may be accompanied by high winds at the start of the coming workweek. Gusts may reach speeds of around 30 mph along the coast and 50 mph in mountain passes.

Swimmers duck under umbrellas as a heavy rain fall pounds the pool deck at Newport Harbor High.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

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