Rain & Wind

Get ready for another round of rain for the second half of the weekend along with some gusty winds before our weather pattern changes. Our next system will bring a chance of light to moderate rainfall across the Central Coast Sunday morning through early afternoon along with some winds possibly gusting up to 30-40 mph for a brief time. High pressure will then build early next week and bring sunny, dry but cooler weather especially at night, meaning a chance for some frost for New Year's! Dangerous surf and beach conditions continue into early Sunday morning.

AIR QUALITY: Goo

**HIGH SURF ADVISORY**
..for the immediate coast of Santa Cruz & Monterey Counties from until 4AM Sunday.

*Large breaking waves of 20 to 30 feet.

*Dangerous swimming and surfing conditions and localized beach erosion can be expected. Large waves can sweep across the beach without warning, pulling people into the sea from rocks, jetties and beaches. Sudden immersion in cold water can result in cold water shock even for the most experienced swimmers. Cold water shock can result in dramatic changes in   breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, greatly increasing the risk of drowning in rough open waters.

Inexperienced swimmers should remain out of the water due to dangerous surf conditions.

Overnight: Increasing clouds becoming mostly cloudy with drizzle possible. Areas of patchy fog likely especially for the Salinas Valley. Breezy at times. Rain chances increase by morning. Lows in the 40s to low 50s.

Sunday: Cloudy with rain showers arriving early and can be light to moderate along with brief gusty winds as front passes through. Highs in the upper 50s to low 60s.

Monday: AM patchy fog then becoming mostly sunny and high temps mainly in the upper 50s.

Extended: A ridge of high pressure builds for early next week bringing back sunshine. Drier weather returns to round out 2024. However, the air mass will be cool especially at night with frost/freeze chances for New Year's Eve! Rain chances may return by late week.

*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: 41ºF
HIGH: 59ºF

--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 36ºF
HIGH: 60ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for January 3^rd – 9^th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and BELOW 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 San Benito County, northeastern Monterey County and eastern Santa Clara County. Drought-free elsewhere
- Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature as of December 27^th : 55.6ºF (avg of 7 buoys) [December Average: 55.0ºF]