Several days of dense fog, driven by a deep marine layer, are expected over Los Angeles, an unusual weather pattern for this time of year that brings significant cooling to the region.
“It’s a little more like a June pattern than a September pattern,” said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. And “we don’t expect much change in the next few days.”
A low-pressure system spinning off the coast has created a strong onshore flow over southern and central California, bringing clouds and cooler temperatures from the Pacific Ocean, Wofford said. He said this development is not unusual for September, but more typical in the late spring and summer.
“It generates a deeper marine layer, which even makes its way into the valleys,” he said. By mid-morning, most of the valleys will clear, but some of the area’s beaches could remain foggy throughout the day, he said.
The pattern brought some drizzle to parts of Los Angeles early Wednesday morning, Wofford said, but not much more precipitation is expected — though that’s always possible.
“When you have the clouds there, you can get a spotty drizzle,” Wofford said. “It won’t get to that point [the marine layer is] super deep and it generates [significant] rain.”
However, the clouds have dropped the temperature by about 10 degrees compared to earlier this week, Wofford said.
The cooler weather pattern comes after a heat wave baked the region at the beginning of Septemberwhich gives triple digit temperatures and fires several forest firesbefore cools down temporarily during the last week.
“It’s cooler than normal,” he said. Coastal highs are expected for the rest of the week in the 60s and low 70s, while lows should stay in the 80s — well below average for this time of year.
And the forecast shows that this trend won’t budge until early next week, Wofford said.
“Somewhere around Tuesday … there’s a little bit of weaker onshore flow and we’ll probably see some warming next week,” he said.