A warm weekend lies ahead for Fresno, but is the Valley in for a weather surprise?

Fresno will steal a page from an old New England saying in the next few days: “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.”

Well, it will be more than a minute, but the National Weather Service is forecasting above-average temperatures beginning Friday through Sunday, with temperatures 3 to 6 degrees above normal, but then the bottom will drop out.

After forecast highs of 70 Friday, 73 Saturday, and 70 Sunday, get ready for 60 degrees on Monday, and 56 degrees Tuesday. There is also the likelihood of freezing overnight temperatures.

Along with the colder weather, there will be a slight chance of showers on the floor of the central San Joaquin Valley and snow in the Sierra Nevada. But it will not be enough to end a dry span that started after a trace of rainfall on Jan. 7. In fact, just a trace of rainfall is in the forecast for the week ahead.

What’s behind the big temperature change? Felix Castro, a meteorologist with the weather service in Hanford, cited a storm front moving in from the Pacific Northwest. He said snowfall at higher elevations will be 1 to 2 inches at most. Valley precipitation will be minimal.