Tracking gusty winds through the weekend

THOUSAND PALMS, Calif. (KESQ) – Winds remain gusty throughout the valley. We expect strong winds Saturday and Sunday evenings, so be sure to take air quality and potential road closures into account for your weekend plans.

Here's a look at air quality as of Saturday afternoon. It's rather unpleasant valley-wide as the entirety of our population sees moderate air quality or worse. The worst pocket of air quality is along the I-10 corridor, near Cathedral City and Thousand Palms. The valley is now under an Air Quality Alert until 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

Here's what to expect as you plan your Saturday evening and Sunday: wind gusts will really strengthen into as we head towards dinnertime to around 40-50 MPH on the valley floor and up to 65-70 MPH through the San Gorgonio Pass. These winds linger into the overnight hours.

The winds taper off somewhat for the Sunday morning. Winds are relatively weaker, with most valley locations seeing gusts under 15 MPH – great news for your morning plans. Come Sunday afternoon, though, winds will restrengthen, and by the evening, we should see similarly strong winds as we did on Saturday.

Temperatures look to be cooler for your Sunday, as well. If it weren't for the wind & dust, this would make for some very pleasant May weather!

Winds die down into Monday, though temperatures will still continue to cool somewhat. Calmer and warmer conditions build back through the middle of the week. Temperatures look stable Wednesday and beyond, perhaps just a hair above seasonal for us in the Coachella Valley.

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