Warming Through the Weekend
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) – Happy Spring! Our weather pattern will certainly feel like it over the next several days. High pressure will slowly build in over the next few days. This will lead to sunny, warm, dry conditions. As the ridge builds, the transitional period will be marked with gusty northwesterly winds at times. Before the ridge dominates the west coast, we'll be in a zonal flow Friday, which will keep us from drying out right away. This, plus a slight onshore flow, could lead to the increase of low clouds near the coast and nearby valleys late Friday into Saturday morning.
Air Quality: Good
Friday: Mostly sunny, with passing high clouds, and slightly warmer. Highs in the 60s on the coast and 60s to low 70s inland. Gusty northwesterly winds at times.
Overnight: Lows clouds will increase filling southern and eastern portions of bay. Spilling into nearby valleys. Highs clouds will continue to push through. Patchy fog possible by dawn. Lows will be warmer with widespread 40s. Few mid to upper 30s inland.
Saturday: Becoming mostly sunny. Northwesterly winds will increase into the afternoon becoming gusty at times. Warm highs, mid to upper 60s at the coast, upper 60s to low 70s inland.
Extended: We’ll stay south of the “storm track” into the weekend, so while areas to our north will be getting rain, we’ll just get some high clouds and gusty northwesterly winds. As the ridge slowly builds in, highs soar above normal by Sunday, and by Monday could be as much as 10-15ºF above normal! Next chance of rain will be around or after mid-week next 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: 45ºF
HIGH: 63ºF
--INLAND CITIES--
LOW: 41ºF
HIGH: 68ºF
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-The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for March 27th – April 2nd calls for the likelihood of ABOVE normal temperatures and ABOVE normal precipitation.
- ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) STATUS: La Niña Advisory
- ENSO Forecast: Neutral conditions expected by April and then to persist into summer.
- Area drought status: Moderate drought for far southeastern Monterey County. Abnormally dry for southeastern Monterey County and eastern San Benito County. Drought-free for the remainder of the KION coverage area.
Monterey Bay Sea Surface Temperature as of March 20th: 54.2ºF (avg of 8 buoys)
[Historic March Avg. SST: 55.3ºF]
