Unseasonably Cool

Light showers and drizzle this morning making a wet commute. Daytime temps will be unseasonably cool today. Instability within the post-frontal environment along with a deep onshore push should be enough “oomph” to get a few showers going along with a very slight chance for a thunderstorm. Temperatures inland could be as much as 20ºF below normal! As the low moves out Tuesday another lobe of the overall trough will rotate down the coast and could bring another round of rain on Wednesday. Beyond that, high pressure slowly builds in for a very warm weekend.

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Today: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers through late morning, early afternoon, then some gradual clearing in some areas with an isolated shower possible. A very slight chance of a thunderstorm also possible. Gusty west-northwesterly onshore and up-valley winds at times early, then tapering off late. Coastal highs in the 60s with 60s to low 70s inland.

Overnight: Most cloudy and lows mainly in the low 50s.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy on the coast and mostly sunny inland with coastal highs in the mid 60s to low 70s and 70s to around 80ºF inland. Breezy onshore winds becoming stronger up valleys late in the day.

Extended: On Wednesday, another system passes through bringing another chance for light rain. High pressure then slowly builds in toward the weekend with highs back above normal by Friday.

*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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 55ºF
HIGH: 71ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 52ºF
HIGH: 86ºF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for September 23^rd - 29^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 to La Niña into the fall and persist through the winter months.
- Area drought status: Abnormally dry for areas around Monterey Bay northward. Drought-free elsewhere.
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature* as of September 16^th: 57.7ºF
(Historic Sep AVG near Monterey: 59.6ºF) -- *average of 7 buoys