Cooler With a Few More Clouds at the Coast

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

Expect cooler temperatures for the next couple of days as weak troughing lingers over the West Coast. The marine layer will deepen, allowing for coastal clouds to hang out during the day and the cooler air will reach into inland valleys. The band of subtropical high pressure to our south will begin to push north toward the end of the week, sending temperatures back up—perhaps way up for some inland areas!

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Wednesday: Low clouds will linger on the south/east sides of the bay and outer coast throughout the day. Cooler, with coastal highs in the low 60s to mid 70s—warmest on the north side of the bay—and mid 70s to upper 80s inland. Breezy westerly onshore winds becoming windy for the inland valleys late in the day.

Overnight: Low clouds will fill the Monterey Bay and nearby valleys. With a slightly deeper marine layer clouds will make it farther inland. Mostly cloudy at the coast, partly cloudy for interior valleys. Lows will be a touch warmer in the upper 40s to low 50s. Patchy fog and light drizzle possible near dawn.

Thursday: Overcast for the coast and valleys early with patchy drizzle possible for coastal areas, then mostly cloudy on the coast and mostly sunny inland. Coastal highs in the upper 50s to upper 60s—warmest on the north side of the bay—and low 70s to around 90ºF inland.

Extended: Temperatures will begin to warm up and clouds decrease on Friday. In fact, inland areas may be feeling the heat of widespread 80s-90s. We’ll be even warmer on Saturday with far interior locations reaching those triple digits, before cooling off a bit and heading back toward normal into early next week.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 52ºF
HIGH: 68ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 50ºF
HIGH: 82ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for June 26^th -  July 2^nd calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and near normal* precipitation.
*Note: little to no precipitation typically falls this time of year

- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition to La Niña by late summer.
- Area drought status: Currently drought-free
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature* as of June 19^th: 56.0ºF
(Historic June AVG: 56.7ºF) -- *average of three buoys