You could call the weather on the Central Coast Thursday complex. At the beaches low clouds were very stubborn due to onshore winds, some SW flow put clouds into Cayucos and Avila Beach, places that don't always see marine clouds persist. In the coastal valleys, early clouds were replaced by partly cloudy conditions in the afternoon. Outside of the beaches temperatures were above average. The interior saw another 100-degree day.
The weather element that was most dynamic on Thursday was the mid-level monsoon moisture. This moisture moved underneath a large ridge of high pressure, this return flow pushed muggy and conditionally unstable air into the higher elevations of California. Destabilized by heat this moisture produced a few pop-up thunderstorms out along the 166 between Santa Barbara County and Kern County.
These storms were not severe but volumetric radar put the tops of the cells just shy of 30,000 ft. As the storms were partially formed by daytime heat, the cooling this evening should largely shut down activity.
The heat advisory for the interior continues into Friday at 8pm. Temperatures will slide inland this weekend, but gradually. This slide even continues next week and by the middle of next week, temperatures look to actually be below average in the interior while coastal and beach locations return to near average.
