1st Weekend of Summer: Breezy, Cooler Break Before the Heat Returns

Late Night Update - 10:45pm:

Blowing sand has led to hazardous air quality conditions across a good chunk of the valley. If you can limit your time outdoors this evening, that would be advised.

Reduced visibility has also led to at least one wash closure. Gene Autry was closed this evening. As of 10:45pm, Indian Canyon and Visto Chino are both open.

Winds remain gusty at times overnight but will ease up some Sunday morning. Meteorologist Spencer Blum will have you covered with the latest beginning at 6am.

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Welcome to the first weekend of Summer! We’re celebrating the solstice with cooler temperatures and some continued gusty winds—especially in the mountain passes and foothill communities. 

We’ve already seen winds 25-35 around the valley floor with stranger gusts 40-50mph in the San Gorgonio Pass. 

A Wind Advisory continues to remain in effect for this area, including Banning, Cabazon and Desert Hot Springs through 11pm tonight. Through this evening will see those west winds blowing about 25-35 mph, with gusts as high as 60 in the pass. Winds linger tonight and overnight before easing up Sunday morning. 

While most of the valley is not under a Wind Advisory, we’ll continue to monitor air quality conditions with an Air Quality Alert in place from the SCAQMD through 8am Sunday. 

As of 10:30pm Saturday night, air quality was listed as hazardous for parts of the valley. You can check current air quality conditions here.

While the winds see some improvement by the second half of the weekend, we’ll still be able to continue enjoying our cooler-than-normal temperatures close to the century mark. In fact, we’ll stay about 3-5 degrees below average through Tuesday before we start rebounding again. 

Here’s why: we’re set up with a broad troughing pattern over the western states right now, while the heat dome that impacted us earlier in the week now moves into the Central and Eastern states. That’ll bring some dangerous heat and humidity to the other side of the country while we catch a little bit of a break. That upper level trough will keep us mild until Wednesday when it begins shifting north, allowing a weak ridging to build in. That will help temperatures gradually climb back closer to seasonal averages.

Looking at the extended forecast, late next week temps are expected to settle within a few degrees of normal for the valley. Probably right around at/to 5 degrees above normal. Overall, look for a breezy evening before winds settle down, with mild days kicking off the week and a gradual return to our usual desert heat by week’s end.