I can summarize everything in one line: great conditions are in store for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

THE WEATHER: Earlier this week there were signs a low pressure system might deliver some showers to the area late Friday, but the projected movement of that system has shifted to the east, placing any precipitation well inland and primarily in the mountains. That said, Long Beach is still expected to see some pretty strong winds on Friday, with the possibility of gusts in the 20-25 knot range. Otherwise, I’m expecting sunny conditions throughout with some occasional clouds thrown in.

FOR FANS: The essentials this weekend are sunscreen, sunglasses and a light jacket in the mornings if mid-50s give you a chill. Afternoon high temperatures should be hovering around 70, give or take a degree or two throughout the three day forecast period, which is a little lower than the average 80s seen during this race. Overall, very comfortable conditions to get out and enjoy Long Beach. As I mentioned above, be prepared to deal with some wind on Friday, which ultimately will be the only real nuisance from a weather perspective for fans over the three-day race weekend.

FOR DRIVERS: Only one weather concern and that’s the aforementioned Friday winds, and it’s both the speed and direction that are worth briefly discussing. The most obvious component of this is that high winds can push the cars around the course, and when they are gusty in nature that can lead to unpredictability and on-the-spot corrections. The wind direction is of interest as well. A strong northwesterly wind is fairly rare for this event, and the last time we had a sustained wind from this direction was during the 2010 race weekend. That means there’s not much practical experience with how this particular wind translates to this particular course. One more note on this: the winds on Saturday and Sunday shift to a more conventional southerly, on-shore, direction…which means that the environment during Friday practice will not be representative of qualifying or race conditions.

Normally this is the part where I caveat my forecast with “changes are possible,” but in this case I’m pretty confident we won’t see any significant adjustments. Regardless, you can still check in on any updates on my twitter feed, @Indycar_wxman. I’ll continue to push updates through the week and you can look for a daily morning ‘weather briefing’ each of the three days of track activity. Enjoy the race weekend and the good weather!

- IndyCar Weatherman