Pleasant Stretch

High pressure to our south strengthens on Wednesday. That, in combination with light northerly flow in the mid-levels will help warm us up anywhere from 2-10ºF compared to Tuesday. This dry, northerly flow will help keep low clouds away as well. A slightly stronger burst of low to mid-level northerlies will develop Wednesday into Thursday which may make for breezy offshore winds in the Santa Cruz Mountains early Thursday morning. Fire danger will pick up slightly during this period as well. Seasonable to slightly warm weather will continue through the end of the week as high pressure blocks storms systems to our north. Out of the weekend may be a different story—more in the extended section below.

AIR QUALITY: Good

Overnight: Clear skies with patchy fog possible in low areas near the water. Expect lows in the low to upper 40s on the coast, upper 30s to mid-40s for inland valleys and 50s up in the hills.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny and warmer with perhaps a few high clouds passing through. Highs in the mid-60s to upper 70s on the coast—warmest on the north side of the bay—and upper 70s to upper 80s inland. Breezy northwesterly onshore flow becoming windy for valleys late in the day.

Thursday: Mostly sunny with a few high clouds passing through. Slightly warm with highs in the mid-60s to mid-70s on the coast and mid-70s to mid-80s inland. Breezy up valleys late in the day.

Extended: Seasonable to slightly warm conditions will continue through Saturday. Then, a trough will approach from the northwest. Cooler and potentially unsettled weather is expected next week and just to throw a wild card in there, the trough may interact with moisture streaming up from Hurricane Kristy somewhere in the Sunday/Monday timeframe. There is a lot of uncertainty at this point, but we are monitoring.

*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: 49ºF
HIGH: 70ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 45ºF
HIGH: 76ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for October 30^th – November 5^th calls for the likelihood of near normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.

- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Watch
- ENSO Forecast: Transition to La Niña into the fall and persist through the winter months.
- Area drought status: Abnormally dry for areas around Monterey Bay northward. Drought-free elsewhere.
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature as of October 23^rd : 56.8ºF (avg of 7 buoys)