RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A low-pressure system is expected to sweep into Southern California tonight, bringing a chance of light precipitation in the
Inland Empire this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
The chance of measurable precipitation today has been set at 20 percent for the inland valleys, but that will increase to 50 percent on Saturday, forecasters said.
Precipitation is not expected in the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning
today (Friday), but there is a 40 percent chance of rain on Saturday, according to the NWS.
No rain is expected in the Coachella Valley this weekend.
The Inland Empire valleys and the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning
could get around one-tenth of an inch of rainfall Saturday, while light snow
could fall above 4,500 feet in local mountains, NWS
meteorologist Stephanie Sullivan said.
The storm system moving in from the north will bring a chance of light
precipitation tonight into Saturday with another chance of mostly light
precipitation late Sunday morning into Sunday night before the system exits the
region by Monday morning, she said.
Rainfall rates this weekend will reach a quarter-inch an hour at the
most so the risk of debris flows will be extremely low, Sullivan said.
Multiple neighborhoods in the Holy Fire burn area fell under mandatory
evacuation orders at intervals between Jan. 31 and Saturday, when the last
storm series produced heavy downpours, resulting in some downed power lines and
a number of street closures. Mud and debris flows, however, did not cause any
serious damage to residential properties.
A wide area skirting the eastern side of the national forest,
bordering Lake Elsinore and the Temescal Valley, was left exposed to potential
flood damage because of the 23,000-acre Holy Fire in August. The blaze,
allegedly the work of an arsonist, denuded steep terrain below Santiago Peak,
permitting water to flow unchecked onto lower slopes where subdivisions are
situated.
High temperatures today are expected to reach 61 degrees in Riverside,
54 in the Riverside County mountains, 61 in the San Gorgonio Pass near
Banning and 66 in the Coachella Valley.
Another storm system could bring precipitation Wednesday into
Thursday, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about the timing of that
system as well as how much precipitation it could bring, Sullivan said.
CNS-02-08-2019 03:48