May will get off to a cool start, with possible rain over the weekend

Los Angeles is expected to see lower temperatures this week and light rain over the weekend, as May gets off to a cool start.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, wrote in an April 23 blog post that a “slightly unsettled pattern of weak but possibly colder low pressure systems” would move across the West Coast over the next few weeks, keeping temperatures below normal.

For the Los Angeles region, temperatures will top out Thursday in the upper 70s in interior regions such as Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, then drop slightly each day.

By Saturday, temperatures will cool to the mid-60s at the coast and the mid-70s inland, including valley areas.

Downtown Los Angeles will hover between the upper 60s and low 70s.

Sunday will see temperatures struggling to reach 70 degrees.

L.A. County has about a 30% chance of rain Saturday into Sunday morning, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.

Rainfall totals are expected to be less than a quarter inch in lower elevations, with more possible in mountain regions.

The lower temperatures will arrive as an increase in airflow from the Pacific Ocean bumps up marine layer clouds and the influence of the sea breeze, Schoenfeld said.

The below-normal temperatures could persist until at least Tuesday, Schoenfeld said, before a warming trend begins.