Southern California to bask in 'summer-like heat'

Southern California, on the rebound from a rare October rainstorm, will basking in summer-like heat today, with beach highs in the lower 80s.

The heat, coming on heels of a soaker that dropped more than 2 inches of much needed rain downtown, is expected to continue through with weekend, with some slight cooling forecast for Monday.

"It's high pressure over the West, coupled with a weak offshore pattern," Meteorologist Todd Hall of the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.

Valley and inland highs will in the 90s.

Offshore winds, known locally as Santa Ana winds, sometimes bring balmy temperatures to the region as late as January.

Though the rain earlier this week ranked as one of biggest October storms to hit the region in more than 45 years, forecasters are still divided over whether this winter will be a drought buster.

"It's still too early to say" if El Nino conditions -- warmer-than- normal waters in the Pacific Ocean -- will develop, but Hall said that "over the next couple of weeks, we should get some clarity about what sort of winter California has in store."

Yesterday was probably the peak in the heatwave, he said.