Marine Layer Blues
Expect another day or two of “may gray” until things start to change a bit. High pressure to our northwest nudges back in for Thursday which will warm the inland areas and mountains a couple of degrees, but it will then retreat on Friday, allowing for an area of low pressure to sneak in from the southwest. As the low approaches, the marine layer will deepen, likely resulting in drizzle on Friday morning—keep in mind it’s always possible to get drizzle out of the low clouds—but this event will make it more likely. The good news is that the deepening marine layer may eventually mix out this weekend which will lead to warmer coastal temperatures and less cloudcover. Heading into next week, a trough will set up in the interior west which will put is back into northwesterly flow, so we may get the return of some spring winds, but it will also disrupt plentiful marine layer clouds.
AIR QUALITY: Good
Overnight: Low clouds for the coast and inland valleys with patchy drizzle around the bay and patchy fog in the hills and inland valleys. Expect lows in the low 50s on the coast with mid 40s to low 50s inland.
Thursday: Low clouds retreat to the coast during the afternoon, but may linger over the coastal plain as far inland as Prunedale. Continued cool with coastal highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s with mid 60s to around 90ºF inland. Breezy southwesterly onshore and then up-valley winds in the afternoon. Low clouds thicken late with drizzle possible.
Friday: Scattered drizzle perhaps bordering on light rain in some areas in the morning. Minor accumulations possible. Then, low clouds retreat close to the coast during the afternoon, but may remain over coastal cities. Continued cool with coastal highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s with mid 60s to around 90ºF inland. Breezy southwesterly onshore and then up-valley winds in the afternoon.
Extended: Low clouds may scatter out a bit this weekend with slightly warmer (and seasonable) coastal temperatures while inland areas will remain mostly sunny but will be a little cool for this time of year. Expect somewhat of a repeat on Sunday. Inland temps will start to warm back up on Monday as we transition back into a more northwesterly flow. Northwesterly winds may gusty at times on the coast and the north side of the bay will be warmer than the south!
*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 (in parenthesis).
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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 50ºF
HIGH: 65ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 46ºF
HIGH: 75ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for May 23rd - 29th calls for the likelihood of BELOW normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: El Niño Advisory, La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition from El Niño to neutral soon and then to La Niña by summer.
-Area drought status: Currently drought-free
