Residual moisture and instability keeping a few showers across the county today with thundersnow reported at Palomar Mountain this afternoon. That thunderstorm later produced lightning near Alpine. There is a small chance of a few showers through this evening before things dry out for the weekend.
If traveling to the mountains to see the snow, make sure to bring chains and be sure to respect the people who live there and their property and pack your trash and bring it home with you. Palomar Mountain picked up over a foot of snow, while we even saw a dusting of snow to lower elevations like Pine Valley, Warner Springs, and Borrego Springs!
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Today was a chilly one with temperatures topping out 5 to 10 degrees below normal for most of the county and up to 20 degrees below average in the mountains! Tonight is going to be the coldest night we have seen in a while, with many inland and some coastal areas in the 30s by sunrise and 20s for the colder inland areas, like Ramona and in the mountains.
A Frost Advisory will be in effect for the inland neighborhoods from midnight until 9am Saturday for temperatures between 28 and 39 degrees. Precautions should be made to protect sensitive plants and bring outdoor pets indoors if possible, if not, ensure they have a way to stay warm and access to water that won't freeze.
Things warm up with plenty of sunshine this weekend; Sunday is the warmest day with low-70s for the warmer coastal areas, mid-70s inland, near 60 in the mountains, and mid-70s in the deserts.
Two more storms next week will bring more cold, wet weather to San Diego. The first will bring mostly rain Monday evening into Tuesday, with a potentially stronger and colder storm Thursday bringing rain and mountain snow. There may even be another storm to follow that weekend but there is more uncertainty with that one.
This far out, snow levels looks to hover around 5,000' on Tuesday, so we'll mostly see rain in the mountains, though the highest elevations of Palomar Mountain, Mt. Laguna, and Lookout Mountain may see a little snow. The second storm will be much colder, with snow levels expected to drop to 4,000' Thursday and potentially as low as 3,500', which would bring more snow to Julian, Ranchita, Pine Valley, Descanso, and maybe even the deserts!
While the rain this week and next will help put a dent in our drought conditions, it won't clear us out completely. Our deficit today is just shy of 5.50" after this storm and we remain at level three drought, or Extreme Drought.
Don't forget—Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday! Set your clocks forward one hour before bed on Saturday night.
Saturday's Highs:
Coast: 60-66°
Inland: 64-70°
Mountains: 48-63°
Deserts: 73-76°
Follow ABC 10News Meteorologist Megan Parry on Facebook at Megan Parry 10News, Instagram @mis_meg_wx and Twitter @10NewsParry.
