Pre Holiday Weekend Gloom

WEATHER STORY
Temperatures will cool down further on Thursday the strong ridge of high pressure that brought record heat to the Central Coast continues to move east. The flow will remain fairly progressive over the coming week with a trough passing by to the north on Thursday and another on Saturday. Both will keep us a little cooler, but there is a difference between them. The first will actually tap into a mild, moist air mass which will keep temperatures seasonable to slightly cool and enhance low cloudcover. The second is a colder and will be followed by dryer northwesterly flow. Still, as it passes we’ll see an uptick in clouds and one or two models are showing a little light rain in northern California. We’ll have to keep an eye on it. Either way, blustery northwest winds are likely on Sunday/Monday, keeping coastal areas especially on the cooler side.

AIR QUALITY: GOOD for most areas

Thursday: Low clouds & fog on the coast and sunny inland. Cooler with coastal highs mainly in the 60s and 70s-80s inland. Winds pick up on the exposed coast in the afternoon and then for inland valleys from the afternoon into the evening.

Overnight: Low clouds and fog return to the coast around Monterey Bay, and will trickle into inland valleys. Expect an otherwise mild evening with lows in the upper 40s to low 50s. Patchy light drizzle is likely.

Friday: Another day of low clouds on the coast, though we’ll probably see some sun on the north side of the bay. A touch warmer with highs in the 60s to around 70ºF on the coast and 70s-80s inland. Winds pick up in the valleys during the afternoon & evening.

 Extended: A weather system will pass by on Saturday bringing partly cloudy skies and a chance of a few sprinkles in the north. Northwesterly onshore winds pick up Sunday and may be gusty at times on the coast. Temperatures will be slightly cool for this time of year but begin to slowly warm back up Monday (Memorial Day) and Tuesday.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 50ºF
HIGH: 67ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 48ºF
HIGH: 77ºF

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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for June 2^nd – June 8^th calls for the likelihood of near normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
- El Niño/La Niña STATUS: La Niña Advisory
- Forecast: Weak La Niña into the Fall

-Area drought status: “Severe Drought” for most of the viewing area with the far eastern fringes of Santa Benito and southeastern corner of Monterey County in “Extreme Drought.”