Friday: Cold Morning, Cool Afternoon
A cold air mass lingers over the Central Coast into Friday. High cloudcover will continue to increase through the morning. Those clouds will stick around on Friday and increase into Saturday as a weakening frontal system, accompanied by a thin atmospheric river of moisture will get the rain machine going. It will likely start in the coastal mountains early in the day Saturday and then the front will move through later in the day, bringing rain to the lower elevations. Right now, rain amounts look beneficial with 1”+ in the coastal mountains and 0.25-0.75” for coastal cities (less inland). A warmer air mass will then settle in for next week.
AIR QUALITY: Good
Friday: Scattered high clouds. Cool, with highs in the 50s (and 40s up in the mountains). Light northwest breeze.
Overnight: Partly to mostly cloudy conditions. With more clouds in the area, lows will be back in the upper 30s to mid 40s at the coast, mainly 30s inland. An isolated light shower and some drizzle possible heading into sunrise for coastal and northern locations. Patchy frost of southern valleys.
Saturday: Increasing clouds with ongoing rain developing in the coastal mountains. Rain will reach lower elevation/coastal cities later in the day with showers lasting overnight. Cool with occasionally gusty westerly winds. Highs in the 50s.
Extended: Showers taper off into Sunday morning, with the start of a warmer, dryer period into next week. Highs return to above normal and lows won’t be as frigid. We’ll have quite a bit of moisture locked offshore, so expect bouts of high cloudcover. We’re watching sometime late next week for rain chances, but there isn’t any sign of a big storm on the horizon.
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This week's normal temperatures:
--COASTAL CITIES--
LOW: 43ºF
HIGH: 60ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 37ºF
HIGH: 61ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for January 19th – 25th calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and ABOVE normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: El Niño Advisory
- ENSO Forecast: Strong to Very Strong El Niño expected this winter.
-Area drought status: Currently drought-free
