Good morning, Central Coast! Happy Wednesday. It has been a wonderful first half of the workweek. However, we are expecting another round of precipitation to be head back to the Central Coast. As always, be weather-aware, keep your jackets and umbrellas handy, and download the KSBY Microclimate App for the latest weather updates.
Here are the latest weather headlines for the Central Coast:
On Wednesday, we will have dry conditions with above-normal temperatures across most of the area. Tomorrow there is a cold storm approaching California and temperatures will drop significantly. Cloudy cool weather with plenty of showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms will affect the area Thursday night through Friday. Snow levels will fall to the point that accumulating snow is possible on all of the major mountain passes. Lastly, this upcoming weekend will be dry and warmer.
Here is a look at your extended forecast:
Central Coast,
Wednesday will be the last sunny and warm day of the workweek before a major cool down and clouds return tomorrow.
A small ridge of high pressure will help keep conditions slightly warm today. Some stratus covers the Central Coast and another patch is snaking its way into the Paso Robles area. The low clouds will clear by mid-morning and the rest of the day will be mostly sunny.
Onshore flow to the east will increase throughout the day and bring some cooling to coastal and valley communities. This afternoon a trough approaches from the northwest and will move across San Luis Obispo and western Santa Barbara counties.
This will enhance the cooling across the Central Coast where high temps will fall 6 to 8 degrees and will bring 2 to 4 degrees of cooling to the interior. Temps throughout the Central Coast will range throughout the 60s and 70s.
The trough will continue to move to the southwest and increased onshore flow will all contribute to a robust marine layer stratus pattern across the coasts and into the valleys. There is a 20 percent chance that rain will fall across the northwest tip of San Luis Obispo County.
From Thursday to Friday evening, a very cold upper-low system will move as far south as the Bay Area and then will turn to the west and move across the state. It will drag a weak front across southern California. This is a very cold system, which means it cannot hold that much water and it lacks a sub-tropical tap of warmer moister air. However, the very cold air will increase the system's dynamics and the atmosphere's instability, so this will be a showery system with the potential for thunderstorms in the region.
Locally, there is a 40 to 50 percent chance that showers will spread towards San Luis Obispo and western Santa Barbara counties from the northwest to the southeast on Thursday. Showers will fall over San Luis Obispo and western Santa Barbara counties in the evening. There is a 20 to 30 percent chance of thunderstorms that will develop overnight with the greatest chance over San Luis Obispo County.
A chance of showers and thunderstorms will continue through the day on Friday. The shower activity will taper over during the evening on Friday. Since this is a showery system there will be periods of no precipitation. Rainfall totals will mostly be under a half inch with some locally higher accumulations on the coastal slopes.
The main talking point of this system will be the snow levels. Snow levels will likely fall in higher elevations of around 3,000 feet Thursday night and stay near that level through Friday night. The snowfall forecast calls for 1-3 inches between 3500-4500 feet and 3-8 inches above 5000 feet.
Here’s a look at your KSBY 7-Day forecast! High temps will drop on Thursday by 8 to 16 degrees with an additional 3 to 6 degrees of cooling on Friday. Friday's high temps across the coasts and valleys will be in the mid to upper 50s, which is 10 to 20 degrees below normal.
Luckily, we will see dry conditions by Saturday as a little ridge of high-pressure moves into the area. We can expect 4 to 8 degrees of warming that will bring noticeable relief to Friday's cold temps but high temps will still end up 8 to 12 degrees below normal.
Central Coast Advisory:
A High Surf Advisory is in effect for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties until 3 p.m. Saturday.
Surf is expected to build rapidly on the Central Coast. While the deep water northwest to west swell will reach impressive heights of 14-18 feet, the swell periods will be moderate at around 11-13 feet on the Central Coast.
Surf will peak around 12-18 feet for the Central Coast, 3-6 feet (with local sets up to 7 feet) for the South Coast, and 7-10 feet (with local sets up to 12 feet) for Ventura County.
Surf will be highest Thursday night through Friday for northwest and west-facing beaches on the Central Coast.
Have a wonderful day, Central Coast! Remember to be weather-aware and keep your jackets and umbrellas handy for Thursday and Friday.
