Good morning, Central Coast! Happy New Year!!! I hope you had a safe and wonderful holiday season with your friends and family. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the latest weather headlines for this work week. We are expecting to see mostly clear skies today through Tuesday. A cold storm will bring periods of light to moderate rain on Tuesday late at night. Lastly, there will be additional periods of high surf on Wednesday and next Sunday. Let’s dive in!
A High Surf Advisory remains in place through 10 am on Monday for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. For the Santa Barbara South Coast, the high surf advisory has been converted to a beach hazards statement through 10 AM Monday due to elevated surf of 3 to 6 feet (except locally up to 10 feet near Point Conception) and continued strong rip currents.
Elevated to high surf is expected this week, however, surf heights will be lower than the past few days. Elevated surf near or just below advisory levels is expected Monday and Tuesday, with a 30 percent chance of high surf advisories needing to be extended past 10 am Monday for the Central Coast and Ventura Coast.
Skies will continue to clear through the day. The offshore flow, sunnier-than-expected skies, and an approaching ridge will all combine to bring 4 to 8 degrees of warming to most areas today. High temps will end up in the mid to upper 60s, which is still 1 to 2 degrees below normal.
A fast-moving ridge will transit over southern California on Tuesday. Skies will start mostly clear with perhaps a smattering of coastal low clouds but will turn partly cloudy in the afternoon as another system approaches. The lack of cool air advection from the east will bring another 4 to 8 degrees of warming to the mountains and far interior as well as some of the inland valleys. There will be 1 to 3 degrees of cooling along the coasts and coastal valleys as the offshore flow trends onshore. High temps for the coasts/valleys will mostly fall between 63 and 68 degrees.
A cold front associated with a cold upper low approaching southern Oregon will move into the Central Coast Tuesday night. Clouds will increase through the evening. There will be a slight chance of showers across the Central Coast in the evening but it's more likely that the rain will develop in the predawn hours after midnight. By dawn, the rain could reach as far south as Ventura County.
Don't forget to download the KSBY Microclimate app for all the latest weather headlines. Have a wonderful day, Central Coast!
