Wet Wednesday
Two days of rain!
Widespread light to moderate rain will continue through the morning hours, slowly tapering off through Wednesday afternoon. The associated moisture plume will offer a fairly uniform shield rain which should produce anywhere from 0.5-1.0” of precip. across the region before it moves out. Then, a pair of disturbances associated with an upper level low will move in overnight into Thursday, generating showers and potentially thunderstorms. Brief downpours, small hail, lightning, and isolated but damaging wind gusts will be possible. Snow levels will also drop as low as 3,000ft Thursday morning.
Air Quality: Good
Wednesday: Widespread rain early, then becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon with a few lingering showers and a chance of a thunderstorm over the inland hills. Northwesterly winds arrive in the afternoon and could be gusty at times. Highs in the 50s. Showers possible again after dark.
Overnight: Mostly to partly cloudy skies, scattered showers throughout the night. With snow possible in the mountains of Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties. Lows will be cooler, with mostly mid-40s near the coast, upper 30s to low 40s inland, higher elevations in the 30s. Northwesterly winds will be gusty at times. Slight chance of a thunderstorm, which could produce brief heavy downpours and/or small hail.
Thursday: Rounds of showers with embedded thunderstorms through the morning hours. Snow levels drop to 3,000ft with several inches of accumulation possible, especially above 4,00ft. Gusty northwesterly winds at times, especially around showers & storms. Shower & storm threat transitions mainly to inland areas by late afternoon and then comes to an end after dark. Highs in the 50s with 40s in the higher elevations.
Extended: Clouds clear quickly on Friday with only a few cumulus left over the hills. Gusty northwesterly winds will continue and then slowly ease. Highs return close to 60ºF and then above for Saturday & Sunday as high pressure builds in. Southerly flow will begin to pick up on Sunday, however, ahead of the next weather system. It will be here on Monday & Tuesday, promising wind & rain and the potential for thunderstorms.
*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: 45ºF
HIGH: 62ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 40ºF
HIGH: 65ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for March 12th – 18th calls for the likelihood of BELOW normal temperatures and ABOVE 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 March 5th: 53.7ºF (avg of 7 buoys)
[Historic March Avg. SST: 55.3ºF]
