Coastal Clouds

Starting the work week with clouds, fog and drizzle. Temps will begin to trend warmer this week. A monsoonal high, which has been hanging out in Texas, will begin to move back west. The trough over the West Coast will begin to flatten out and eventually be absorbed into the upper level flow and leaving room for the ridge to move all the way back to California. While there may be a speed bump or two, it looks like temperatures will steadily climb into next weekend.

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Today: Clouds retreat to the coast, then hang out on the south side of the bay and the outer coast during the afternoon. A touch warmer with coastal highs in the mid 60s to mid 70s—warmest on the north side of the bay—and mid 70s to mid 90s inland. Breezy onshore winds becoming windy up valleys late in the day.

Overnight: Low stratus clouds at the coast spilling inland again with patchy fog and drizzle. Lows in the 50s with a few upper 40s.

Tuesday: Widespread low cloudcover early, becoming partly cloudy on the coast and mostly sunny inland during the afternoon. Slightly warmer with coastal highs in the mid 60s to upper70s and upper 70s to upper 90s inland. Breezy onshore winds becoming windy up valleys late in the day.

Extended: Temperatures keep climbing as high pressure moves back to the west through mid-week. Highs should remain seasonable on the coast through Thursday, then above into the weekend. Inland areas will reach above normal levels by Tuesday and also keep climbing into the weekend. Can’t rule out a few high clouds at times as a thin layer of monsoon moisture streams around the high, but at the moment, that looks like the extent of it.

 *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: 55ºF
HIGH: 70ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 53ºF
HIGH: 85ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for August 5^th – 11^th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and ABOVE 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 July 29^th: 59.2ºF
(Historic June AVG: 58.4ºF) -- *average of six buoys