Wednesday the Central Coast experienced some amazing conditions. After some early clouds skies cleared. Locally breezy conditions were taking place as a ridge of high pressure was nosing in.
That ridge will drive offshore winds overnight and into Thursday morning.
Most coastal areas will see some 15-20mph winds from the north-northeast. This will drive mild temps in the 60s and 70s for most:
However, in SW Santa Barbara County those winds will be even higher, and a wind advisory is in place until 1 am for winds 20-30 gusting to 50mph. The Gaviota and San Marcos Pass areas would be places where folks experience some of those higher winds.
The only other active advisory is for high surf for the west-facing Central Coast. 10–14-foot breaking waves with local sets to 16ft are likely into Friday morning.
The atmospheric pattern is an interesting one. The ridge of high pressure trying to move in from the west looks to get undercut by an upper atmospheric trough that becomes positively tilted (from the NE to the SW) and backs into California.
This will drive some surface low pressure from the east to the west into eastern CA first but ultimately it could move that low pressure as far west as Ventura or Santa Barbara Counties.
This would allow some showers to develop on Friday. Our modeling does show some shower potential on Friday afternoon in Santa Barbara County. If it does rain it appears light, so you don’t see a rain icon (yet).
Further down the road, it looks like March will still deliver one more shot of cooler weather with a chance of showers in about 8-10 days.
The pattern looks more cool than wet but some showers are showing up on mid-range modeling.
