A North Pacific storm system will slowly move over San Diego County Friday with rain and mountain snow possible late in the evening. Most precipitation is expected early Saturday morning into Saturday afternoon with rain likely for much of the county and snow possible above about five thousand feet. As the cold winter storm moves east, a high-pressure system will fill the void, bringing with it warmer weather for the beginning of next week. The windy, wet conditions should arrive by Friday evening and last through Saturday evening, then warmer, drier weather is on tap for early next week.

The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency is asking homeowners to stop watering their lawns for a week while work is carried out on a pipeline that supplies water to Los Angeles. Beginning March 4-10, water from Castaic Lake will be unavailable for use while repairs are made to a pipeline called the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Foothill Feeder system. The Foothill Feeder Connection which draws on water from Castaic Lake connects two of the agency’s water efficiency projects to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It is part of the system that delivers water to SCV Water for treatment and distribution for urban use.

After weeks of questioning San Diego’s water department about water-meter retrofits and being told no retrofits are taking place at residential homes, NBC 7 Responds found one home where a botched smart meter replacement led to a customer being billed thousands of dollars more for water she did not use. After the discovery by NBC 7 Responds, city water officials disclosed five homes where meter replacements were done incorrectly. “Our bill for this last period is $4,831,” Pacific Beach homeowner Laura Ambrose said. Laura said her family usually pays around $200 every two months for 35 to 40 hundred-cubic-feet (HCF) of water. In her June-through-September bill last year, after Laura’s water meter was replaced with a new smart water meter, Laura saw her bill jump to more than $800. The city said she used 85 HCF of water.

San Diego County will get hit by the second storm of the week late Friday. But it will be weaker than Tuesday’s system and will do little to reduce the growing deficit in seasonal rainfall. The National Weather Service says the system is likely to drop about a half-inch of rain at the coast and twice as much across inland valleys and foothills by the time it moves east late Saturday. The system also could bring snow. But the storm is warmer, so the snow level will be at about 6,000 feet.