About a half-inch of rain is expected Thursday and showers could pop up on Friday as well in Santa Barbara County, as a storm front moves through the area from Alaska, according to officials from the National Weather Service.
The service said the storm will bring an “unseasonably cold” system into the area from the Gulf of Alaska that will bring periods of rain and mountain snow across southwest California.
Steady rain is expected to move into San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties on Thursday before spreading south.
Another cold front is expected to move in Friday, and is likely to bring more sporadic showers.
Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said there will be about three hours of steady rain moving through Santa Barbara County on Thursday.
The Amgen Tour of California, which will bring the world’s top professional cycling teams to the area, will begin Stage Five of its race on Cabrillo Boulevard on Thursday just before noon, but the riders may escape the rain until they near Santa Clarita, where they are expected to finish the race.
Kittell said Santa Barbara should begin to get rain in the afternoon and into the evening, and that the storm could bring up to a half-inch of rain.
“You should see pretty steady rain,” he said.
Highs on Thursday will be in the lower to mid-60s, but “for the most part should be pretty mild,” Kittell said.
On Friday, a 50 percent chance of rain is expected, but that storm system is not as united and may bring sporadic showers.
“There is still a chance of rain. … The system is still around, but it’s not going to be an organized band of rain,” Kittell said. “It may last an hour and then stop.”
Temperatures on Friday also are expected to be in the lower to mid-60s. The weekend is expected to be sunny and clear with temperatures back up into the 70s as the cold front moves south.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
