The last few days the narrative for the Central Coast has been wind, waves, and fire weather. We are still dealing with the winds and the waves but the fire weather warning was allowed to expire for Santa Barbara County this morning.
Waves are still up: 9-12ft with max sets to 14ft. The wave generator was a larger low-pressure system in the PacNW this week. That system has moved on but the ocean rings like a bell and some of those waves are still arriving. The advisory for high surf ends Thursday night at 9 p.m.
Other than that the temperatures have been warm with 80s for coastal valley and interior areas and 70s at beaches.
One more day with similar temps on Thursday. Friday temperatures dip a little with marine clouds returning. Interior temps likely still hit the 80s with 70s for coastal valleys and 60s returning for beaches.
The bigger changes come Saturday when a trough of low-pressure swings into the Central Coast. The source region for the trough is out of the North Pacific. So, it'll be a cool weekend.
On top of that, there appears to be plenty of jet stream energy rotating through the trough to support some instability for scattered showers. It doesn't look particularly wet. I think we'll see most places seeing less than .20” of rain.
The showers look to be on and off so Saturday is far from a wreck but it certainly will not be sunny and warm as the last few days have been.
I think Sunday should be dry, but variably cloudy and still cool with highs in the 60s and 70s.
The trough lifts out early next week and temps will again warm a little. Beyond the 7-day, the 8-14 day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center likes cooler than average temperatures with nothing exciting in the precipitation outlook after the Saturday showers.
