Beginning today and throughout this coming weekend, a bridge of high pressure building in will dry out the batch of rainy days that began Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
That will give Los Gatos residents and the rest of Silicon Valley some nice warm temperatures on Saturday and Sunday with lots of sun, said NWS meteorologist Larry Smith.
However, the pleasant weather this weekend won't help what forecasters are saying is looking like below normal rainfall levels this winter, which could mean 2012 may go down in the weather books as a "drought" year.
A small chance of precipitation is in the forecast for Monday evening, but not much, maybe less of a tenth of an inch, he said.
To determine normal precipitation levels, the NWS looks at the 30-year weather period beginning in 1981 to 2010, explained Smith.
That time frame, as weird as it might seem, had a value of 23.08 inches of rain.
To see if Los Gatos was below or above normal, Smith indicated the town had received a total of 16.5 inches of rain from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2011, showing it's 28 percent below normal precipitation levels.
Smith said if the state doesn't receive more precipitation in the next few weeks, with the drying weather approaching in April, it could be facing some drought issues in the summer.
Those could affect the agricultural industry because there won't be enough water for crops to grow or maybe we might see some water restrictions, he said.
"At this point we're not in that much trouble because last year we were substantially above normal all over the state and that will kind of hold us through this year," he said. "But if we get a second bad rainy season then we'll start to see some problems."
Smith encouraged weather enthusiasts to check out the NWS Climate Prediction Center for a longer weather outlook beyond the agency's normal two-week forecast by visiting www.cpc.noaa.gov.
