Showers are expected to soak California as early May kicks off. This is a time of year where the state can expect a dry spell. AccuWeather's Ken Clark has more on the weather patterns for the state.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hey, Ken, thanks for being with us.
00:02Good morning.
00:03Good morning.
00:03All right, let's talk about this weekend first and the pattern that's going to bring some showery and even snowy weather back across California.
00:10Yeah, there's a storm dropping in from the north and it's going to move north to south this weekend.
00:15Scattered showers in northern and central California, maybe more numerous showers into southern California by Sunday,
00:21maybe even a couple of thunderstorms around as well.
00:24And it's going to be a cold, cold Sunday.
00:26Well, cold for California standards.
00:29Temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below normal.
00:32It's going to be quite the chill out there and also quite a bit of wind.
00:35Yeah, that's pretty significant here.
00:37And we just kickstarted a new month.
00:39And as we flip the calendar to May, it's typically the start to the dry season with rain chances greatly decreasing.
00:47Let's talk about what it looks like in a year across California.
00:50Yeah, you can see when most of the rain falls and it's really December through March and into early April.
00:57Once you get into May, it really decreases.
01:00And the summer months of June through September, there's very little rain occurs.
01:04In fact, if you take out April through September and October, about 90 to 95 percent of the rain that falls,
01:13falls in those short winter months.
01:16An incredible stat there really puts things into perspective for areas that may not be as familiar with Southern California.
01:22Although it's a relatively rare occasion, it can rain in the dry season.
01:27Explain how that happens.
01:29It can rain.
01:30And the main cause of that is monsoon moisture or moisture that comes in from the southeast that comes up from the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of California
01:39and comes into Southern California from the southeast, and that sparks showers and thunderstorms.
01:45That's how we get the rain mostly in the summer months.
01:47Maybe a dying tropical system that dies before it moves into Southern California also can bring rain.
01:54These are rare events.
01:55Don't happen very often.
01:57One thing you can think about in California, you live in California, basically June through September,
02:02you can plan any outdoor activity and more than likely you will not get rained on.
02:07That was going to be my next question to kind of put into perspective what the end of the wet season means for California residents.
02:14I mean, you did that pretty good.
02:15But when you look at beyond this weekend, that's going to be cloudy.
02:18We're ending into what could be a really, really nice, that sunny and 75 weather we all dream about.
02:23Yeah, it's going to warm up next week again.
02:25We're going to look at 80s in the inland area.
02:27So this is a short little showery period coming up.
02:31After that, we're looking for dry weather into next week.
02:34All right, AccuWeather California expert Ken Clark, we appreciate you breaking it down
02:38and we'll be jealous of you as you enjoy that nice weather upcoming.