SACRAMENTO, Calif — A stretch of warm, sunny weather is on its way to Northern California after an unusually cold April weekend.
Thursday and Friday saw temperatures in the low to mid 50s across most of the valley as an unseasonably cold air mass poured into the region from the north. Sacramento Executive Airport was in the 40s most of the day and only peaked at 51 degrees, which is the coldest low temperature recorded on April 4 for that location.
The system that supplied the cold is now centered over Arizona and high pressure is moving in overhead in its wake. As a result, a warming trend will push temperatures into the 80s by Wednesday and Thursday before another low pressure system cools things down by the weekend.
Temperatures Monday will rise into the low 70s in the valley, accompanied by a north breeze. Sunny skies produced good viewing conditions for the solar eclipse, which peaked at 35% coverage in Sacramento.
The warming trend that started Saturday will continue through Thursday. The forecast highs in the 80s Wednesday and Thursday will be the first of the year in Sacramento. The average first 80 degree day since 1990 is March 28, so the city is running quite a bit behind in this regard. Temperatures will rise into the 50s and 60s this week in the Sierra but will plunge back into the 30s and 40s by the weekend.
The aforementioned low pressure system will be nearing California by Friday and temperatures will be 5-15 degrees colder compared to Thursday. Saturday will be even colder due to a cold front passing through in the afternoon, bringing another shot of late season rain and snow. Timing and totals will become clearer later in the week but expect another wet weekend.
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