LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Temperatures will climb today to levels considerably above normal, forecasters said.
The unseasonable heat is the product of a ridge on interior high pressure combined with an offshore flow, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kristen Stewart in Oxnard.
The NWS forecast sunny skies today and highs of 66 on Mount Wilson; 68 in Palmdale; 69 in Lancaster; 72 in Avalon; 74 in Saugus; 77 at LAX; 78 in Long Beach; 79 in San Gabriel and Burbank; 80 in Woodland Hills and Pasadena; and 81 in Downtown L.A.
Stewart said areas where temperatures will be 80 degrees are normally in the upper 60s at this time of the year. NWS meteorologist Brandt Maxwell in San Diego said the same, adding that a warm air mass such as the region is now experiencing is typically the outcome of an offshore flow.
Saturday's highs in L.A. County will be about the same as today but Sunday's will revert to the 60s, according to an NWS forecast.
Sunny skies were also forecast in Orange County, along with highs of 59 on Santiago Peak; 70 on Ortega Highway at 2,600 feet; 71 in San Clemente; 73 in Laguna Beach; 75 at Fremont Canyon; 76 in Newport Beach; 78 at Trabuco Canyon; 79 in Yorba Linda; 80 in Mission Viejo and Fullerton; 81 in Anaheim; and 82 in Irvine. The pattern will then be about the same as in L.A. County -- about the same Saturday and a sharp retreat on Sunday.
Strong winds, meanwhile, continued to whip across the Southland, with the NWS reporting northeast winds of 20-30 miles per hour accompanied by gusts of up to 50 mph. A wind advisory will be in effect until noon in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. The NWS says the strongest winds are blowing through the San Gabriels and Santa Monicas and the Antelope Valley Freeway (14) corridor.
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