A Break From The Gloom

Your forecast for Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and southern Santa Clara Counties…

Expect another big change in the weather on Friday! Weak ridging nudging in from the southwest behind a departing low and dryer northwesterly surface flow will bring the sunshine back to the Monterey Bay Area. Clouds will generally be on the decrease Friday as dryer winds pick up out of the northwest. All areas will be warmer—in some cases, up to 15ºF! A trough will slowly dig down the west coast from the north into the weekend. This will keep the winds blowing and slightly cool inland areas. However, the flow should prevent a stable marine layer from persisting, so this will allow for warmer but seasonable coastal temps.

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Overnight: Low clouds for the coast and inland valleys. Patchy fog in the hills. Lows in the low 50s on the coast and upper 40s to mid 50s inland.

Friday: Decreasing clouds. Gusty northwesterly onshore and up-valley winds at times. Warmer, with coastal highs in the low 60s to mid 70s—warmest on the north side of the bay—and mid 70s to upper 90s inland.

Saturday: Coastal & valley fog early, then mostly sunny with a few low clouds possible on the coast at times. Highs in the low 60s to mid 70s on the coast—warmest on the north side of the bay—and mid 70s to mid 90s inland. Gusty northwesterly onshore and up-valley winds late in the day.

Extended: Winds will be strongest on Sunday under mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies. Seasonable temperatures will continue. A passing weak system may produce a little drizzle Monday morning, but the general trend will be for warmer weather through mid-week and the winds will ease some.


*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: 52ºF
HIGH: 68ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 49ºF
HIGH: 81ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for June 21^st – 27^th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.

- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition from El Niño to neutral soon and then to La Niña by summer.
- Area drought status: Currently drought-free
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature* as of June 14^th : 55.7ºF
(Historic June AVG: 56.7ºF)
*average of three buoys