Dennis RomeroSee our guide to 2012 Coachella acts here. And, check out our photo primer of Coachella eye candy.
Bad news for Coachella hipsters this weekend:
The second of two storms headed for Southern California will bring a chance of rain, windy conditions and low temperatures to the desert valley where Radiohead, The Black Keys and David Guetta are scheduled to perform.
Bring your neon sweaters, because this is what we have in store:
On Friday night the Coachella Valley will be partly cloudy with a chance of showers and strong winds that could reach 50 miles per hour, Noel Isla, a National Weather Service observing program leader, tells the Weekly.
While the rest of us in L.A. will see serious rain, the storm will be dissipate by the time it passes over our grand mountains that separate the desert from the L.A. basin.
Credit: Lucy Rendler-Kaplan
If rain comes to the greater Palm Springs area, it'll only be about a tenth of an inch worth, Isla says.
Still, it will be cold. You hipster girls might want to save those bikini tops for the second weekend: Isla expects temperatures to reach down into the 40s at night on Friday, with low 50s possible on Saturday and Sunday.
Highs are expected to reach the 60s on Friday and Saturday — “that's cool for them,” Isla says — and into the 70s Sunday.
On Saturday there will still be a slight chance of rain, he says, and it will be partly cloudy. It will be “breezy,” San Diego-based Isla said.
Coachella organizers are concerned: They've called the National Weather Service in Oxnard about the approaching storms, an official there told us.
The miserable vibes for the nation's foremost pop showcase might have nothing on L.A.'s weather, though.
The metro basin has two storms approaching this week.
The first one is expected Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. According to the National Weather Service, it will be the stronger of the two, generating up to three-quarters of rain for the L.A. basin and up to a foot of snow above 6,000 feet in the local mountains.
You heard that right — a foot. In April.
On Wednesday the snow level will drop to 4,500 feet, says NWS weather specialist Stuart Seto.
That second storm, the one Coachella fans should be worried about, hits late Thursday into Friday morning and could have a residual kick on Saturday. The Thursday storm will be weaker, Seto says, with lighter rain and a snow level of about 4,000 to 5,000 feet.
And you thought, with all this beach weather, winter was over for Southern California?
Seto says the dry-season “La Nina” we've been experiencing has weakened considerably:
This season we've been under the influence of La Nina. It held back our rainfalls in January, February and March. La Nina has weakened. Now they're looking for April to be back to normal conditions.
That can't be good news for Coachella, which runs for two back-to-back weekends this month.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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