Temperatures to dip after back-to-back days of warm weather

Temperatures are expected to take a dip in Sonoma County on Friday after back-to-back days of 80-plus degree weather, a trend that is expected to continue into the weekend.

Downtown Santa Rosa reached a high of 85 on Thursday, falling just short of a daily record set in 2004 of 88 degrees, National Weather Service meteorologist Eleanor Dhuyvetter said.

On Wednesday, the city reached 81, again falling short of the daily record by 3 degrees.

Friday’s weather could be about 10 degrees cooler than Thursday and the mercury will drop again on Saturday, when forecasters expect a high of 65 degrees in Santa Rosa, Dhuyvetter said.

Temperatures could increase again on Sunday, but only by a couple degrees, Dhuyvetter said.

“There’s a little more cloud cover this weekend, allowing things to return to a bit more normal,” Dhuyvetter said.

Five cities elsewhere in the Bay Area tied or beat records for daily high temperatures on Thursday. They included Richmond, which hit 89 degrees to tie with its 2011 high temperature record and Livermore, which also tied a prior record of 85 degrees set in 1966, the weather service said.

While March ended with unseasonably warm weather, experts say the month overall was cooler than average for most areas around the region.

That was true at the Santa Rosa airport, which saw an average high of 64.3 degrees in March, 2.5 degrees cooler than the historical average, the weather service said.

San Francisco, Hayward, Livermore, San Jose and Salinas all recorded average high temperatures that were cooler than normal by 1 degree or more, according to the weather service.

The trend is a likely result of the La Nina weather pattern that continues to impact our region, Dhuyvetter said.

Staff Writer Andrew Graham contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.