| Day | Date | High/Low | Forecast |
| Mon | 5th | 61/51 | Partly to mostly cloudy through the evening. |
| Tue | 6th | 64/50 | Partly cloudy through the evening. |
| Wed | 7th | 63/49 | Some morning clouds but mostly sunny day. Mostly clear evening. |
| Thu | 8th | 63/49 | Sunny day and possibly breezy at times. Clear evening. |
| Fri | 9th | 67/50 | Sunny day. Clear evening. |
Synopsis
Happy New Year! It looks like southern California is headed for a rain less period. A large, upper level trough continues just west of the state, and there is one more storm embedded within this trough. Last week, some of the computer models were predicting widespread, wet weather for this Tuesday-Wednesday. However, the model consensus now shows this storm moving south while staying west of the Southland. For tonight, there are some model forecasts of scattered, light showers in some areas (mainly around the mountains and southeast of L.A. County). The L.A. Basin, including the campus area, should remain dry. The aforementioned storm is expected to weaken as it tracks southward tomorrow. It finally makes landfall over northern Baja California early Wednesday, but it should be too far south for a rain threat in L.A. County (at best, some light showers in San Diego County eastward).
It got a bit warmer today at UCLA than I expected (63 degrees). A little more daytime warming is expected tomorrow in most locales. Unless the surface pressure pattern ends up more off-shore flow than anticipated, the campus area shouldn’t exceed the mid-60s on Tuesday. A developing, “inside slider” type trough is forecast to affect the state on Wednesday. Increasing wind in the interior is expected. It should be a mostly sunny day in most areas, but there are a few model scenarios that include some cold air instability showers for the higher mountains (mainly north facing Tehachapis). Temperatures in most areas that day may dip a tad compared with what occurs tomorrow.
Northerly winds should pick up in many areas Wednesday night into Thursday. This will herald a period of off-shore flow that should last into the weekend (probably through most of next week). Santa Ana wind prone areas may see wind gusts exceeding 65 mph at higher elevations while lowland peak winds may reach 40 mph in some locales. Winds should diminish noticeably on Friday as upper air support wanes, but some brisk winds should continue at times for Santa Ana wind prone areas through at least Saturday. Model forecast disagree on details, but some level of off-shore flow is likely through most of all of next week (no widespread, strong winds anticipated next week).
As is typical with most off-shore flow events, warmer than normal weather should prevail west of the mountains (possibly as early as Friday some areas). Widespread temperatures well into the 70s may occur for the first half of next week (slight cooling thereafter). Some of the longer range models show a couple of “inside slider” troughs affecting the Southland over the subsequent weekend. Most don’t show any relevant threat of wet weather (excepting some chance of instability showers around the mountains). Most of the longer range models show seasonable or slightly cooler than normal weather for the weekend of the 17th, but possible outcomes are varied (a few show a minor shower threat west of the mountains by MLK, Jr Day).
Next issued forecast/synopsis may occur this Friday, 9 January, time permitting. Otherwise, expect one on Monday, 12 January.