Sacramento entering warming trend as Monday drizzle tapers off

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday dawned in Sacramento with some early-morning drizzle, but forecasters said the region can look forward to generally sunny skies and spring-like temperatures in the days to come.

Temperatures in the Sacramento area were expected to hover in the mid-50s, even as the drizzle tapered off, because of the low clouds. The drizzle provided no relief from the drought.

“It hasn’t officially measured in our buckets,” said Jim Mathews of the National Weather Service.

Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to bring more gray weather, Mathews said: early-morning fog plus low clouds, with high temperatures in the upper 50s.

But the weather will brighten considerably Thursday through Saturday.

“We’re looking at temperatures in the mid-60s, which would be a good 10 to 12 degrees above normal,” Mathews said.

He said nightly temperatures are expected to dip into the low 40s throughout the week.

Mathews said the “perennial ridge” that’s kept the Sacramento area dry in the new year is actually strengthening. The ridge tends to block rainy weather systems and divert them to the north. So while parts of Shasta and Trinity counties received an inch or more of rain over the weekend, the Sacramento area stayed dry.

As a result, a promising start to the winter, including significant rainfall during December, has given way to another extended dry spell.

“We’re still at zero (rainfall) for the month of January,” Mathews said.

This story was originally published January 19, 2015 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Sacramento entering warming trend as Monday drizzle tapers off."