Weekend Storm To Wallop Palm Desert

PALM DESERT, CA — A storm system packed with rain from the Pacific Northwest will roll into the Inland Empire on Saturday, producing another round of downpours through most of the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

In the Coachella Valley, the weather service is forecasting heavy downpours Saturday and scattered showers through Tuesday morning. Temperatures will likely hoverin the low to mid 60s, with lows in the upper 40s.

The agency said back-to-back troughs will sweep across the region, beginning Saturday afternoon and continuing through Sunday into Monday and Tuesday morning, with the heaviest precipitation likely late Saturday night.

"For San Diego and western Riverside counties, rainfall is expected to range from around one-half inch near the coast to 1 to 2 inches in the mountains, with locally greater amounts," the NWS said. "Rainfall in the deserts will mostly be one-tenth to one-quarter inch."

Snow levels will generally hold above 6,000 feet until Sunday night, when elevations above 5,500 feet could be under a blanket of frozen precipitation, meteorologists said.

Unstable conditions will persist into early next week, though precipitation is forecast to be light and scattered after Sunday.

Prognostication charts published by the weather service indicated another storm front may reach the inland region and the rest of Southern California on Wednesday, though the strength of the system was uncertain.

For Saturday and Sunday, temperatures were expected to turn chilly again in the Riverside metropolitan area, with highs in the upper 50s and lows in the mid 40s.

In the Temecula Valley, the mercury was forecast to top out in the mid 50s Saturday and Sunday, with lows in the mid 40s.

City News Service