Mostly Quiet Into The Holidays

The weather pattern will remain fairly quiet for the next week or two. High pressure generally dominates the West Coast with weak systems passing by to the north and south. We’ll remain in weak northwest flow through Monday with a slightly cool air mass in place. It will be more noticeable at night with lows running around 7ºF below normal. Highs will be closer to normal, but still cool for this time of year. A weak system will pass by on Tuesday which will bring clouds and maybe a few sprinkles. Then the ridge builds back in with warmer, more seasonable weather through Friday. Another weak system will then pass by with an uptick in clouds and maybe a few sprinkles before things level off for the holiday next weekend.

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Sunday: Mostly sunny with a few high clouds passing through. Can’t rule out some low cloudcover for the far eastern valleys of San Benito County and/or a passing low cloud or two around the Monterey Peninsula. Slightly cooler for most areas with coastal highs in the mid to upper 50s and 50s to around 60ºF inland.

Overnight: Mostly clear Fog possible for eastern San Benito County Valleys and southern Monterey County valleys. Patchy fog possible in other low, sheltered areas like the lowlands between Hollister and Gilroy. Cool, with lows in the 30s to low 40s on the coast (with patchy frost) and mid 20s to mid 30s inland (and widespread frost)

Monday: Another frosty start with similar lows to Sunday morning. Then, mostly sunny and continued cool with coastal highs in the mid to upper 50s and 50s to around 60ºF inland.

Extended: Clouds will increase but temperatures will warm slightly Tuesday as a system passes by. Can’t rule out a few sprinkles and breezy conditions for inland areas. The warming trend will continue more or less through the end of the week under mostly sunny skies. Coastal areas will likely see above normal highs into the weekend while inland areas remain seasonable. At this time, Christmas weekend looks mostly sunny and seasonable.

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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 43ºF
HIGH: 61ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 37ºF
HIGH: 62ºF

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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for December 25^th – 31^st calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and BELOW normal precipitation.

- El Niño/La Niña STATUS: La Niña Advisory
- Forecast: Weak La Niña continues through winter, becomes neutral by Spring

-Area drought status: “Severe Drought” for most of the viewing area with “Extreme Drought” in southern San Benito and southeastern Monterey Counties. The southeastern third of San Benito County has been upgraded to “Exceptional Drought”