Let the Warm Up Begin

Sunshine and summer-like weather. 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 to Moderate

Thursday: Mostly sunny with a few high clouds passing through. Northerly winds, gusty at times over the hills and valleys. Warmer, with highs in the 60s on the coast and 60s to low 70s inland.

Overnight: Few high clouds passing through early, overall mostly clear. Cooler lows in the 40s for coastal locations, 30s and 40s inland with far interior valleys dropping into the low 30s, there patchy frost is possible. Patchy fog possible for sheltered, damp, low-lying areas.

Friday: 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 27^th – March 5^th 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 20^th 54.ºF (avg of 7 buoys)
[February Avg. SST: 54.9ºF]