Slowly Warming Up

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) – Happy Spring! High pressure will slowly build in over the next few days. This will lead to sunny, warm, dry conditions. As the ridge builds, the transitional period will be marked with gusty northwesterly winds at times.

Air Quality: Good

Thursday: Becoming mostly sunny and slightly warmer with highs in the upper 50s to mid-60s. Northwesterly winds pick up in the afternoon and could be gusty at times.

Overnight: Partly cloudy to mostly clear skies. Patchy fog for low, sheltered locations possible by dawn. Lows will be cooler, 40s along the coast and mostly 30s inland. Northwesterly winds will ease, but will remain breezy.

Friday: Mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the 60s on the coast and 60s to low 70s inland. Gusty northwesterly winds at times.

Saturday: Mostly sunny. Northwesterly winds will increase into the afternoon becoming gusty at times. Warm highs, with mid to upper 60s at the coast, upper 60s to low 70s inland.

Extended: We’ll stay south of the “storm track” into the weekend, so while areas to our north will be getting rain, we’ll just get some high clouds and gusty northwesterly winds. As the ridge slowly builds in, highs head above normal by Saturday and by Monday, could be as much as 10-15ºF above normal! Next chance of rain will be around or after mid-week next week.

*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 27^th – April 2^nd calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and ABOVE 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 20^th: 54.2ºF (avg of 8 buoys)
[Historic March Avg. SST: 55.3ºF]