Drying Out
High pressure builds back into the region, bringing a period of warmer, dryer weather. During the building process, dry, gusty winds are possible over the hills.
Air Quality: Good
Overnight: Low clouds for the bay and inland valleys with patchy fog possible. Northerly winds, gusty at times over the hills and exposed coast. Some reduction in cloudcover possible by dawn. Lows in the 40s.
Thursday: Mostly sunny with a few high clouds passing through. Northerly winds, gusty at times over the hills. Warmer, with highs in the 60s on the coast and 60s to low 70s inland.
Friday: Mostly clear to start—can’t rule out a bit of fog in low, sheltered areas. Then mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the 60s to mid-70s. Light winds.
Extended: High pressure will dominate our weather through the weekend, blocking storm systems off to the north. We’ll have occasional high clouds spilling through, but otherwise sunny conditions can be expected. Highs will be above normal through at least Wednesday and outside of a few cool mornings, lows should remain fairly seasonable through the period. Next rain chance may be as far away as Feb28/Mar1.
*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: 44ºF
HIGH: 61ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 40ºF
HIGH: 63ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for February 27th – March 5th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and BELOW normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Advisory
- ENSO Forecast: La Niña persists into spring, then transitions to neutral by summer.
- Area drought status: Moderate drought for eastern San Benito County and far southeastern Monterey County. Abnormally dry for the remainder of the viewing area.
Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature as of February 20th 54.ºF (avg of 7 buoys)
[February Avg. SST: 54.9ºF]
