Brief Warm Up

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) – The brief warm up will continue Wednesday, before temps start to drop into the weekend. High pressure to our south continues to build in strength leading to highs 10-15ºF above normal. The ridge will max out mid-week before moving east. Inland locations will remain warm on Thursday, but coastal cities will start to cool down, with a stronger on-shore flow developing. This cooling trend will take us into the first half of the weekend.

Air Quality: Good   
 
Wednesday: Mostly sunny and warmer yet. Expect highs in the 60s-70s on the coast and 70s-80s inland. Breezy northwesterly onshore and up-valley winds in the afternoon.  

Overnight: Mostly clear, with some high clouds passing through. Patchy low clouds could make an appearance on the southern portion of the bay by morning. Temps will be mild in the mid to upper 40s, to low 50s. Light winds. 

Thursday: Sunny and very warm again with temps above average and a minor heat risk for interior locations. Highs 60-70s coastal and 70s-80s inland.
 
Extended: High pressure weakens by Thursday with a trough approaching from the west. Coastal areas will cool 4-5ºF while inland areas maintain the heat of Wednesday. Coastal winds will pick up and then strengthen with a more impressive cool-down on Friday. We’ll be cooler yet by Saturday with gusty northwesterly winds at times. Before another brief, and small warm up out of the weekend into early next week. Watching weak system, Tuesday.

 *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: 46ºF  
HIGH: 64ºF     

--INLAND CITIES--   
LOW: 42ºF  
HIGH: 70ºF     
 
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for April 15^th – 21^st calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and BELOW 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 April 7th: 56.0ºF (avg. of 7 buoys) [Historic March Avg. SST: 55.1ºF]