The winds that hit Southern California later this week will ease up on Saturday, allowing for a pleasant, mostly sunny last weekend in January.
Wind warnings issued by the National Weather Service expire at 4:00 pm Friday in Los Angeles County and 10:00 pm Friday in inner Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.
“It will still be windy (Saturday),” said Phil Gonsalves, weather service meteorologist. But the wind speed of 15-20 m/s with gusts up to 30 m/s will be about half as much as it was on Friday. High temperatures this weekend will be around 70 degrees in valleys with mostly sunny skies.
On Saturday, light showers and snowfall are possible in the mountains, with snow levels reaching 3,000 feet. High temperatures will be around 60 on Saturday and 66 on Sunday. The minimum will be from 27 to 41.
Light winds will be good news for residents who are still cleaning up after last week. In Claremont, winds in excess of 70 mph knocked down an estimated 300 trees, including 91 in parks, in six hours. Some residents lost power, several houses were damaged.
Those winds were much stronger than this week, said Kristen Stewart, another weather service meteorologist. She noted that the winds this week were not strong enough to break through the canyons of the San Gabriel Valley into Claremont.
Next week will start partly sunny with a slight drop in temperature before turning to sunny weather midweek. High temperatures in the valleys are predicted to be between 60 and 70 degrees. It is expected that high temperatures in the mountains will range from 50 to 50 degrees.
