Pattern Change Ahead

High pressure will begin to weaken on Sunday, but temperatures will still remain warm for this time of year. Expect another hot day inland and nice day on the coast with mostly sunny skies and only a few low clouds. The weakening ridge will allow the marine layer to slowly deepen early in the work week which will encourage cooling and increased coastal clouds. Inland valleys will cool as well, but will remain warm for this time of year through Monday. A deeper trough will arrive mid-week which will finally cool inland areas below normal, but also help mix out the marine layer—making for sunnier, warmer weather at the coast.  

AIR QUALITY: Good to Moderate

Sunday: A few low clouds on the coast, otherwise sunny. Slightly cooler with coastal highs ranging from mid-60s to mid-80s—warmest on the Santa Cruz side of the bay—and inland highs ranging from the mid 80s to around 104ºF. Windy up valleys late in the day.

Overnight: Low clouds and patchy fog for the coast bay and just sneaking into nearby valleys. Otherwise clear with lows in the 50s for most areas and 60s-70s up in the hills.

Monday: Low clouds and fog early with partly cloudy skies on the coast during the afternoon. Cooler, with coastal highs in the low 60s to mid-70s—warmest on the north side of the bay—and upper 70s to around 100ºF inland. Windy up valleys late in the day.

Extended: Thicker clouds on the coast Tuesday with increasing northwesterly winds. Winds get gusty on the coast by Wednesday, though the clouds will begin to break up a bit. Coastal temps bottom out on Tuesday, then head back to normal for the rest of the week while inland areas will bottom out on Wednesday and then slowly warm into the weekend.

*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: 55ºF
HIGH: 71ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 52ºF
HIGH: 86ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for September 15^th – 21^st calls for the likelihood of BELOW normal temperatures and ABOVE normal precipitation.

- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition to La Niña into the fall.
- Area drought status: Currently drought-free
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature* as of September 8^th: 60.5ºF
(Historic Sep AVG near Monterey: 59.6ºF) -- *average of six buoys