Changing Pattern

Weather Story: High pressure will slowly begin to move in from our west as we head into the weekend. Inland areas will begin to warm up—a trend that will continue into the weekend. It will actually stay cool and somewhat cloudy on the coast until the ridge is almost overhead, when the layer will be compressed enough to allow coastal temperatures to warm up. Sunday will likely be the warmest day on the coast with highs 5-10ºF above normal. Sunday or Monday will be warmest inland with highs 10-15ºF above normal. Check out the “extended” section below for more on what happens next.


Friday: Low clouds may linger on the south/east sides of the bay at times, but you can expect inland sunshine. Coastal highs will remain in the upper 50s to mid-60s with inland areas mostly in the 70s to around 80ºF. Breezy for inland valleys in the afternoon and early evening.

Overnight: Low clouds slowly fill back in overnight. Expect lows in the mid 40s on the coast with 30s to low 40s inland.  

Saturday: Still a bit cool on the coast with low clouds lingering on the south/east sides of the bay. Highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s will persist. Inland areas will continue to warm, however, with highs in the mid 70s to low 80s. Expect breezy conditions for the valleys in the afternoon and evening.

Extended: Temperatures warm into the weekend with highs peaking on Sunday. Inland areas will be much warmer than the coast as the flow will remain onshore. Still, even on the coast, above normal temperatures should be achieved. Skies will be mostly sunny with a few low clouds on the coast and the daily blasts of valley winds are likely to persist. The ridge will flatten a bit early next week with a weak system passing through. There are a few solutions that could result in an isolated shower for our area Tuesday/Wednesday, but that remains a low probability event. There has also been some consistency in the models with a wet system breaking through by April 25^th-26^th, but that’s still out in fantasy land.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 46ºF
HIGH: 64ºF
 
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 42ºF
HIGH: 71ºF

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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for April 23^rd – 29^th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and BELOW normal precipitation. 
-El Niño/La Niña STATUS: Weak La Niña
-Forecast into Summer: Neutral

-Area drought status: Moderate drought for most of the viewing area with abnormally dry conditions in southern Monterey & San Benito Counties.