A Pair Of Weak Systems
A pair of weather systems will impact our area as we head into the work week. The first arrives overnight in the form of a weakening cold front. Light to moderate along with breezy southerly winds can be expected along the front as it moves into the Monterey Bay Area past midnight. The front will continue to weaken as it heads inland and eventually stall. A few additional light showers may be possible through the morning commute before partial clearing Monday afternoon. The second system will be quick on its heels, arriving late Monday night into early Tuesday morning. This is a slightly wetter system, but still nothing to be concerned about. In similar fashion, it will be weakening as it arrives and will stall as it fizzles out. Between the two systems, we could see a few spots in the Santa Cruz Mountains receive up to 2” of rain, but most cities around the bay will be well below that. Some inland areas may not see much if any rain as the fronts stall after barely making landfall. High pressure then builds in through mid-week, forcing winds offshore, warming us up and drying us out!
AIR QUALITY: Good
Overnight: Mostly cloudy with a period of light to moderate rain around the bay after midnight, breaking to isolated showers through dawn. Lows in the 40s to low 50s. Initially breezy southerly winds on the exposed coast will slowly taper off.
Monday: Isolated morning showers, then becoming partly cloudy. Slightly cool with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s. Clouds increase late with light rain possible nearing midnight. Breezy northwesterly onshore winds in the afternoon.
Tuesday: Rain overnight, especially on the coast with only a few isolated showers making it inland. Shower chances taper off early, then skies become partly cloudy. Breezy northwesterly onshore winds becoming windy in the valleys late in the day. Slightly warmer, with highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s.
Extended: Gusty northerly winds commence on Wednesday under mostly sunny skies and then slowly turn to more northeasterly (offshore) into Thursday. Temperatures quickly warm back up to if not above normal on Thursday, especially on the coast. Warm, dry conditions will continue into the weekend, though the winds will die down. We’ll likely see a stronger daily seabreeze by the weekend with could return some low cloud/fog to the coast a la “may gray.”
*Note: Any alerts from the National Weather Service in Monterey will be noted in italics above. Alerts may be edited for brevity or local clarification (in parenthesis).
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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 45ºF
HIGH: 63ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 41ºF
HIGH: 67ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for March 18th – 24th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: El Niño Advisory, La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition from El Niño to neutral by Spring and then to La Niña by summer.
-Area drought status: Currently drought-free
