Warming Back Up Eventually

Warmer weather is on the way, but it will take several days to get here. In the meantime, we mean trapped between to large-scale but far away weather systems. They have the pattern so blocked up that not much movement is taking place aloft. Thus, our weather is not changing. We will remain in a relatively deep marine layer into the weekend which will keep temperatures both on the coast and inland below normal and widespread low clouds in the forecast. Northwesterly surface flow will help to clear out the Santa Cruz side of the bay, however. Starting early next week, the big, hot ridge to our southeast will begin to strengthen and then move back westward toward California. The result will be the return of heat to our inland areas and a compressed marine layer. At the coast, we’ll warm up a bit—close to if not just a bit above normal, but fog will be an issue in the overnights. It looks like the hot pattern may set up for a while too.

AIR QUALITY: Good

Overnight: Widespread low clouds for the coast and inland valleys. Patchy drizzle on the south/east sides of the bay with fog in the coastal hills and into the inland valleys. Expect lows on the coast in mid-50s with mid-40s to mid-50s inland.

Friday: Overcast early, then becoming partly cloudy on the coast with clouds focused on the outer coast and south side of the bay. Sunny inland. Expect highs in the 60s on the coast with low 70s to around 90ºF inland. Northwesterly onshore winds will be gusty at times on the coast and strong for inland valleys later in the day.

Saturday: Overcast early, then becoming partly cloudy on the coast with clouds focused on the outer coast and south side of the bay. Sunny inland. Expect highs in the 60s on the coast with low 70s to around 90ºF inland. Northwesterly onshore winds will be gusty at times on the coast and strong for inland valleys later in the day.

Extended: Temperatures will slowly warm as the marine layer begins to compress into early next week. Expect highs to return to normal inland by Monday and maybe Tuesday or Wednesday on the coast. Inland areas could get quite hot next week, exceeding temperatures that were reached this past weekend.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 54ºF
HIGH: 68ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 52ºF
HIGH: 85ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for July 14^th - 20^th 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: El Niño Advisory
- Forecast: El Niño developing this summer.
-Area drought status: Currently drought-free