A 112-year-old record fell Tuesday in Santa Maria with an 85 degree high, SLO also set a record at 86 degrees.
Rain will return to the Central coast Thursday PM into Friday. It is a system that is well supplied with moisture.
This week an atmospheric river has been hammering the PacNW with rain. This strong atmospheric river looks to weaken some as our low-pressure system spins up later Thursday into Friday BUT will aid in providing moisture supply to the storm.
After several record or near record warm and dry days fueled by offshore winds this is an essential piece to produce beneficial rainfall and not just scattered light rain like the systems over the last 2 months.
The last two months have been 4-8" short of average rainfall (we were running about a 2" surplus before January but that has been decimated by the dry weather in 2022 thus far.)
The systems on the way will not fix the shortage but look beneficial. Right now I'm going with a forecast of .10-.75" for the Thursday into Friday storm.
Another weak impulse likely produces additional showers Saturday and another system either Tuesday or Wednesday next week will just add a few more showers before the pattern gets quiet for a bit.
Important to note that the Thursday PM-Friday system will cool so quickly that the atmosphere may be unstable enough for scattered thunderstorms which can produce brief heavy downpours and hail.
Before all this happens, Wednesday looks to be a nice warm day again. More high clouds will continue to pour over the area. Even early Thursday morning looks quiet before rain picks up in earnest in the afternoon thru Friday morning.
