The long-predicted temperature plunge arrived Friday. Interior highs dropped by roughly 20 degrees from highs in the mid-90s Thursday.
Coastal highs also dropped with the arrival of more onshore flow, marine clouds, and also mid-level clouds filtering the sunshine. It is windy as expected and there is one advisory into tomorrow morning for the SW portion of Santa Barbara county where gusts could hit 50-55mph.
No big changes for Saturday. Beaches look to top in the 50s at the coolest beaches to the mid-60s at warm spots. Coastal valleys will also mostly be limited to 60s for highs with early clouds but also NW Winds in the afternoon 15-25mph. Interior highs will also remain below average with early clouds and partly cloudy afternoon conditions and a NW breeze.
Sunday features some weak warming.
The reason for all of this is that a deep trough of low pressure replaced a ridge that had kept the Cenrtal Coast warmer than average thru Thursday. This deep trough is in place Saturday and starts to lift out Sunday. Sunday is transitional to a more flat or "zonal" jet stream flow next week.
This will push inland temps back up to the upper 90s and triple digits as coastal highs also ramp up, but some marine influence will keep highs from being extreme (just a few degrees above average most days).
Outside of the Central Coast, the summer monsoon is starting to pick up over the 4-corners area. Most seasonal forecasts show an active monsoon season. Locally we have to monitor this for times when "the backdoor is open". That just means occasionally the monsoon backs into California and can deliver higher humidity and even occasional thunderstorms. That isn't expected in this forecast but it is something to watch over the next few months.
