Happy Friday, Central Coast! Things are warming especially in those interiors. Paso Robles, Shandon and California Valley saw a high of about 80 degrees.
Other highs across the region include San Luis Obispo at 80 degrees, Cambria at 71, Santa Maria at 73 and Santa Barbara at 74 degrees.
Overnight fog and morning clouds remained mild allowing for some clearing in the interiors and coastal valleys. Along our beaches, we did experience some patchy cloudy conditions.
The big story for the day is the smoke coming from the wildfires in Oregon and Northern California. According to the SLO County Air Pollution Control District, the air quality in our region was unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Although our models are showing the smoke spread across the state even into Southern California, there is some relief coming our way all thanks to a change in our wind patterns.
Northwest winds helped drag the smoke from Northern California and then the shift to westerly winds pushed the smoke into the Central Coast.
The good news is that our winds are transitioning to southwest winds, which will help push out all that smoke away from our area. We could start to see some clearing Saturday evening into Sunday.
As a result, there is an Air Quality Alert for San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern Counties.
Another thing to look out for is a raindrop or two coming from remnants of Post-Tropical Cyclone Kenneth. Our models showed some moisture is getting dragged to Southern California in the afternoon including Santa Barbara, but our radar is not picking any major activity.
Although we did see a warm-up, our Microclimate Forecast model also shows a system in the Pacific Northwest that is helping keep temperatures mild.
Fall is in the air, at least astronomical fall is, meteorological autumn kicked in on Sept. 1. The Autumnal Equinox means that the Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5 degrees giving us an equal amount of daylight and darkness. For us, the official start of astronomical fall is on Sept. 22 at 11:50 PM.
For those of you planning out your weekend, here is a look at our temperatures for the next three days. Our beaches are staying in the low 60s, coastal valleys in the lo 70s and interiors in the low 80s.
As we look ahead, we can expect gusty sundowner winds in Santa Barbara County Monday through Wednesday.
Gusty Sundowner winds are expected Mon night into Wed. Combined with some low relative humidities and drier fuels, this may cause brief critical fire weather conditions. 🌬️ #CAwind #FireWX pic.twitter.com/fQqWbeSNxL
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) September 22, 2023
Our seven-day forecast is showing mild conditions, but starting on Tuesday, temperatures will warm up. Paso Robles is jumping to the mid 80s on Tuesday and San Luis Obispo is switching from 70s to 80s.
For Santa Barbara, the warmest day of the week will be Wednesday with a high of 78 degrees. Santa Maria is expecting 80s by Wednesday.
Enjoy your weekend Central Coast!
