Coastal Clouds, Gradual Cooling

A cooling trend will continue but still warm inland with above normal highs! However, temps will be much more bearable today with more highs in the 80s. Temperatures will continue on a downward trend throughout the rest of the week. Expect more coastal clouds and a marine layer with dense fog possible during the night and early mornings, and a rain threat arrives for late week into Saturday. An upper low pressure system to the northwest will dive southward bringing a slight chance for light precipitation. Otherwise expect a more comfortable week and weekend.

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Today: More clouds at the coast with skies turning mostly sunny inland. Coastal highs in the low to upper 60s to low 70s and 80s to around 96ºF inland. Windy in the Salinas valley and at the coast late in the day.

Overnight: Low stratus clouds fill back in at the coast and inland valleys with patchy dense fog and drizzle in the coastal areas with lows in the low to mid 50s up to the 60s inland with mostly clear to partly cloudy skies.

Thursday: Morning clouds, dense fog and drizzle/mist possible then dry and sunny with temps in mid to upper 60 to low 70s at coast and 80s to 95 degrees inland.

Extended: More seasonable temperatures are expected for the remainder of the week with low clouds, drizzle and fog on the coast and valleys at times. A low pressure system will pass by late in the week into the weekend and may give us a slight chance of rain. We are monitoring.

*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

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 52ºF
HIGH: 71ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 48ºF
HIGH: 81ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for October 13^th – 19^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 October 7^th : 61.8ºF (avg of 7 buoys)