St. Patrick’s Day Showers and Possible T-Storms

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) – Rain showers persists this morning as a frontal system moves through the area. We’ll get a brief break late morning between the front and the encroaching upper level trough. It will arrive late morning into the afternoon and help destabilize the atmosphere for shower and potentially thunderstorm formation. It will clear out by evening giving us a bit more of a break before the next weathermaker arrives late Wednesday.

Air Quality: Good

Monday: Partly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms possible. Winds pick back up into the afternoon and will be gusty out of the northwest at times. Highs in the 50s. Showers end by late afternoon.

Overnight: Light, linger showers before midnight then drying out. Partly to mostly cloudy to start, becoming partly cloudy to mostly clear by sunrise. Northwesterly winds will ease, still occasionally gusty. Low-lying areas could see areas of patchy fog. Frost for far interior locations. Much cooler lows in the low to mid 40s at the coast, 30s inland.

**FROST ADVISORY**
… for interior Monterey County, and most of San Benito County from 2am Tuesday to 9am Tuesday.

*Temperatures as low as 32 will result in frost formation.

*Cold conditions will be hazardous to sensitive populations such as unhoused individuals. Cold conditions can lead to hypothermia with prolonged exposure.

*Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold.

Tuesday: Morning fog in the valleys, then becoming mostly sunny. Slightly warmer, but chilly northwest winds persist and will remain gusty at times. Highs in the 50s to low 60s.

Extended: The next system arrives late Wednesday as a weak cold front arrives after dark. Light rain is the most likely scenario with some lingering showers into Thursday morning. Northwest winds will pick backup Thursday afternoon in the wake of the system. High pressure will the build in for the weekend. After a couple of cold mornings—potentially frosty inland on Friday—temps will warm into the weekend with dry conditions expected through Sunday at least.

*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: 45ºF
HIGH: 63ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 41ºF
HIGH: 68ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for March 24^th – 30^th  calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Advisory
- ENSO Forecast: Neutral conditions expected by April and then to persist into summer.
- Area drought status: Moderate drought for far southeastern Monterey County. Abnormally dry for southeastern Monterey County and eastern San Benito County. Drought-free for the remainder of the KION coverage area.
 Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature as of March 17^th: 53.5ºF (avg of 7 buoys)
[Historic March Avg. SST: 55.3ºF]