As expected, Wednesday saw temperatures rise a little from Tuesday but both days were generally warm to downright hot. The current pattern which has featured strong night and morning offshore winds has kept interior valleys warmer than average but also spiked temperatures in coastal valleys and even beaches.
(SLO did end up hitting 101, 102 is the record for today and 80 is an average daytime high)
When the winds are strongly offshore and come down the face of the local topography the air sinks and compresses raising the temperature. The afternoon winds have briefly turned back around onshore but this whole pattern comes to an end Thursday.
Onshore winds resume Thursday. While this evening and much of the overnight should feature generally clear skies computer modeling shows marine clouds forming toward morning around the coast. The onshore flow and early clouds alone will bring tea beach temperatures back down and coastal valley temperatures but the pattern that's developing will also dramatically cool the interior which has seen temperatures at or near 100 over the last several days.
The current high-pressure ridge over the desert SW extending into California is replaced by a deep and Strong through dropping in out of the Pacific Northwest. That through we'll introduce low pressure which will deepen the marine influence and get it over local topography into the interior. Interior valleys will likely see some cloud cover later Thursday night into Friday morning as well.
Thursday's highs will range from the 60s and 70s at beaches to the 70s and most coastal valleys and 80s and 90s in the interior valleys. Additional cooling continues Friday and Saturday with interior daytime highs dropping all the way down into the 70s and low 80s with low 70s in the coastal valleys and 60s at beaches.
Sunday could see temperatures come up a degree or two but nothing dramatic. The beginning of next week should see some high pressure return with interior temperatures returning to the lower 90s with coastal valleys in the 70s to near 80-degree range.
The 8-to-14-day outlook from the climate prediction center has flipped back to an outlook featuring warmer-than-average temperatures and generally dry conditions across The West.
