'Cool, Cloudy' Weather Expected Through Friday

Winter seems to have arrived in San Diego about two months late. Highs today will be in the 50s and lows have data below freezing and there is even a chance of rain in the forecast. Joining me with the weather update is Phil Gosalves. He is with the National Weather Service here in San Diego. Welcome to the program. >> Hello. >> Thank you for joining us. There was a frost advisory last night that said temperatures could go as low as the mid-20s. Did temperatures get that lo? >> In a few locations they did. Temperatures were not as low as they were yesterday morning. The main reason for that was the cloud cover that moved in overnight. >> Have we had record-breaking temperatures this week. --? >> We did. >> We heard reports of snow in parts of the county on Tuesday. What areas got snow? >> Primarily the higher elevations in the mountains. I think Mount Laguna got snow and so did parts of Palomar Mountain. >> Was it testing -- a recorded level of snow? >> A few places had enough snow to measure but most places did not. >> We have been waiting a long time for some wintry weather in Southern California. What kept us so warm for so long? >> The overall pattern since the beginning of winter has been dominated by a ridge of high pressure and a very cold low pressure trough over the eastern portion of the North American continent. >> It's always inevitable that this pattern had changed. The challenge would be to forecast when the pattern will change and for us, it changes. >> The big question is will this changing weather pattern bring rainstorms with it? >> This is the type of a long wave pattern that makes that more likely. It opens the door for storm systems to move in to Southern California from the north and bring with it a lot of cold air. Thus far they have not brought a lot of moisture with them and they typically don't bring a lot of moisture with them simply because of their trajectory, which is a overland trajectory. If they are moving slowly enough and conditions are right, on occasion they have the potential to access moisture from the tropics. When that happens, then we get the major rainfall events in Southern California that we've seen. We saw one or two of those last winter. >> I hear that you're in the control room at the National Weather Service. Can you tell us what we can expect the rest of today and the rest of this week? >> We fully expect to have the cool, cloudy weather with us for the next several days at least into Friday. With that, we will have periods of light showers. Conditions are cold enough for snowfall in the local mountains. We can see snowfall down as low as 3000 feet. It is cold enough for that and if that would happen, then says the Highway Patrol would be out on interstate 8 because there is at least a portion of interstate 8 that would be above the snow level at least for a brief period of time. There are those types of concerns. >> I've been speaking with Phil Gosalves. Thank you so much. >> You are very welcome .