A storm system rolling out of the Pacific Northwest will slide across the Inland Empire this weekend, likely generating the first appreciable rain for the fall season, according to the National Weather Service.
“The next trough of low pressure is taking a strong inside slider track,” the NWS said in a statement. “The associated cold front should arrive Saturday afternoon. There should be widespread frontal precipitation, and then post-frontal instability showers.”
Prognostication charts published by the NWS indicated the rain will start in the Riverside metropolitan area Saturday evening and linger into Sunday afternoon before clearing to the east.
“With the showers Sunday morning, the snow levels could be as low as 4,500 feet,” the agency stated.
Forecasters did not provide expected precipitation amounts, but they noted that “the pattern does not produce much desert rainfall.”
Productive downpours are likeliest around mountains and hills, according to the NWS.
In the Riverside area, high temperatures Thursday and Friday will be in the low 70s, with lows in the mid 40s, while through the weekend, the highs will peak around 65, with lows remaining in the 40s.
In the Coachella Valley, the mercury will generally hold in the mid to upper 70s from Thursday to Sunday, with lows in the mid 50s, while in the Temecula Valley, the temperature band will be virtually identical to Riverside’s, meteorologists said.