Hello, Central Coast! Happy Friday. We are experiencing a slight warming trend due to a weak upper ridge of high pressure and northerly flow impacting our region. We will see these warm conditions continuing on Saturday. Some cooling is expected to begin on Sunday.
Weather headlines:
-High pressure aloft and increasing northerly flow will bring significant warming to California on Friday, with additional warming in the coastal and interior valleys on Saturday.
-There will be gusty northwest winds Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon, with some damaging wind gusts across southern Santa Barbara County, the mountains, and the Interstate 5 Corridor by Saturday night.
-We will have limited night and morning clouds through Sunday. Some cooling is likely to begin on Sunday, with more significant cooling on Monday, as night through morning clouds become more widespread.
Extended forecast:
Marine layer clouds have rapidly retreated from the coastal plains and valleys, with most of the Central Coast under sunny skies. Onshore flow has significantly trended downward compared to Thursday.
The gradient trends supported faster clearing of the low clouds on Friday and skies should be sunny in most areas by the Friday afternoon.
The High Wind Warning began Friday afternoon for the southwestern portion of Santa Barbara County and the western portion of the Santa Ynez Mountains, as the latest model indicates very high wind gusts of 50 to 65 mph beginning Friday evening.
The High Wind is in effect until 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The upper low that was located near San Diego Thursday evening has moved into western Arizona early Friday morning. A weak ridge of high pressure was building into the region and onshore flow has weakened. The combination brought faster clearing and warming for most of the region Friday, with high temps up 5 to 10 degrees.
On Friday afternoon, northwest-to-north winds should increase to advisory levels across most of Santa Barbara County’s mountains, the Santa Ynez Range, the southwestern coast of Santa Barbara County, the northern mountains of Ventura County, and the Interstate 5 Corridor.
Advisory-level winds should push into the southeastern portion of the Santa Barbara County coast this evening. Strong downsloping in the warm airmass will likely cause a jump in temps across the southern portion of Santa Barbara County very late this afternoon or this evening, with high temps possibly rising into the lower to mid-90s in the foothills of the Santa Barbara County’s south coast this evening. Advisory-level winds will continue in these areas through Saturday afternoon.
Damaging wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph may occur across the mountains of Santa Barbara County, portions of the south coast, including Refugio and Gaviota by early Friday evening, and probably the Montecito Hills area before midnight.
The airmass will be quite warm on Saturday, with high temps remaining around 80 degrees across southern Santa Barbara County after peaking at nearly 90 degrees Friday evening. There will likely be several degrees of warming in most coastal and valley areas on Saturday, while there will be slight cooling in the Antelope Valley, the interior valleys of San Luis Obispo County, and the higher mountain elevations.
However, there is a good potential for more significant warming across interior portions of the Central Coast, and more likely in southern Santa Barbara County, specifically the Santa Ynez Range and the south coast. High temps should have no problem rising well into the 90s to around 100 in the Santa Ynez Range.
There is also a Heat Advisory in effect for Santa Barbara County until 8 p.m. on Sunday.
Here's your KSBY 7-day forecast! We will continue to have additional warming in the forest on Saturday but temps will start to slightly drop by Sunday. A modest cooling trend is expected for Sunday into Monday.
