The Central Coast is set to experience seasonable temperatures through the weekend, with only minor day-to-day fluctuations.
Coastal areas should expect night-to-morning low clouds and fog at times, keeping the coastal regions cool and pleasant.
The weather pattern over the Central Coast will be relatively stable through Thursday, with seasonably warm conditions expected to persist. A weak trough will move through the region on Tuesday, followed by a ridge building in on Wednesday and Thursday. This will result in a slight cooling trend on Tuesday, with temperatures gradually warming up again by midweek.
Most areas will see temperatures within 5 degrees of normal for this time of year.
Residents of southwest Santa Barbara County should be aware of a 30-40 percent chance of Sundowner winds reaching advisory levels on Tuesday evening. This probability increases to 50-70 percent on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, with a 20-30 percent chance that these winds could extend into the eastern Santa Ynez Range by Thursday evening or night. While breezy northwest to onshore winds are expected in interior areas, they are not expected to reach advisory levels.
The upside could be the Santa Barbara South Coast could experience warmer, mostly cloud-free conditions due to downsloping winds.
West to southwest flow aloft will keep any monsoon moisture well to the east of the region.
In the deeper extended outlook, I’m looking at the monsoon and considering if it could make an easterly push next week. There is a lot going on down the road: an interesting cut-off low could develop for the PacNW as well. We are going to have to consider all this later in the forecast but for now it is smooth sailing.
This week, the Perseid meteor shower has its peak.
Perseids, known for being one of the best meteor showers of the year, have been active since mid-July. The peak is expected to occur overnight from Monday, August 12, to Tuesday, August 13. The visibility of the meteors will be good for a couple of days on either side of the predicted peak. Local weather and light conditions are likely to have a greater impact on visibility than the precise timing of the peak. So, beaches are not the best place with our marine clouds, nor are cities due to light pollution. Inland is the best spot and so are rural areas.
The meteors, which appear to originate between the constellations of Camelopardalis and Perseus, are best viewed by looking slightly away from the center of these constellations. My advice is to use your peripheral vision, as it is more sensitive under low-light conditions. As Perseus rises in the northeast just as the sun sets, focusing on the eastern part of the sky for the best views.
The Perseid meteor shower is a northern hemisphere phenomenon, and it occurs as Earth passes through debris left behind by the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. As the Earth travels around the Sun, it slams into this material, which is often no larger than a grain of sand. When these tiny fragments collide with Earth’s atmosphere, the air in front of them becomes compressed, generating heat and causing them to burn up, creating the bright streaks of light that we see.
Comet Swift-Tuttle follows a lengthy 133-year orbit around the Sun, leaving a trail of debris in its wake. Each year, Earth crosses this path, resulting in the annual meteor shower that consistently originates from the same region of the sky.
Most of the meteors will appear as brief flashes of light, there’s always a chance of seeing a fireball—a larger fragment which can blaze across the sky for several seconds and may even break apart.
I’ll quote one astronomer I saw about this, “these aren’t fireworks”. Be patient, they are out there and in my opinion even better than fireworks even though they are more subtle.
