'Rollercoaster Temperatures' Start Saturday Through The Week

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Another weekend storm system didn't bring the March Miracle experts had hoped for earlier in the year and started the Sacramento region towards rollercoaster temperatures next week.

By Tuesday, the National Weather Service Sacramento projects temperatures will be in the 80s. Is the back-and-forth a new normal for California? One expert says, it's likely.

"Unless we were to receive really unprecedented, really unexpected amounts of rain during the remainder of March, which is not forecast, or perhaps during April and May, we're gonna see a very dry water year and a elevated fire risk," said Michael Wara, Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Rain totals since October are near average, at 14.77 inches in the water year, but National Weather Service Meteorlogist Robert Baruffaldi said because most of that fell at the start of the water year, it remains dry.

"Next weekend there's a potential system that we might see some more rain and hopefully snow for the higher elevations," said Baruffaldi.