Despite a cold, wet and miserable Thanksgiving, the Bay Area can expect a sunny start to the Christmas shopping season, forecasters are predicting.

“It’s looking like a pretty nice week,” National Weather Service meteorologist Austin Cross said Sunday. “During the day, it should be in the low to mid-60s and sunny all week.”

But this is late November, not May, so The City won’t escape foggy mornings and chilly evenings this week. The weather service is calling for overnight lows in the upper 40s and light winds.

However, San Franciscans should not expect this week’s pleasant weather to last, Cross said. December might begin mildly, but it probably will not end that way.

“Being that it is winter, we should be getting rain before too long,” Cross said. “It really is our rainy season now.”

Although The City saw 0.21 inches of rain between Wednesday night and Thanksgiving Day, Cross said the Bay Area has seen less precipitation than usual so far this season.

San Francisco International Airport was fogbound Sunday morning, as Thanksgiving travelers returned home, but flights were only delayed by about half an hour, airport spokesman Doug Yakel said.

“It cleared out fairly good at the airport,” he said.

acrawford@sfexaminer.com