May gray returned to Southern California Tuesday morning, May 17, as residents awoke to cloudy skies — a pattern that forecasters say could continue into early next week.
A coastal eddy, coupled with a weak upper level trough moving inland and north, have brought in a deeper marine layer, which reached San Bernardino early Tuesday morning, said San Diego-based National Weather Service meteorologist Philip Gonsalves.
The marine layer typically burns off by about noon and on Tuesday, May 17, was giving way to temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s for most areas in Southern California, forecasters said, while coastal areas will hang in the 60s.
A brief increase in temperatures is expected Wednesday and Thursday, said David Sweet of the NWS Oxnard office, as the sea breeze won’t be as strong, and the marine layer won’t be as thick.
Temperatures could get into the low 70s on the coasts on Wednesday and Thursday, but will mostly remain in the 60s all week.
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Some parts of the Inland Empire could see temperatures in the low 90s those days, Gonsalves said.
In Los Angeles County, valley areas were anticipated to see temperatures in the mid-80s by midweek, Sweet said.
But by Friday and through the weekend, those temperatures will dip back to the mid-70s to low-80s, both forecasters said.
“This is about as typical as it gets,” Sweet said. “We’re headed into an extended period of seasonal temperatures, with low clouds and fog in the morning and warming in the afternoons.”