Good Morning Central Coast!
To kick off the morning temperatures, while more mild than normal for this time of year are cooler than the past few days.
There is some marine influence that has moved in along our western beaches, that will make for a significantly more mild day at the beaches, with the return of some visibility concerns.
This heatwave has broken record after record and now we are facing a few more days before relief sets in (in a very big way). The last push of the heatwave caused the interior excessive heat warning to be extended into Thursday and a separate excessive heat warning is in place for conditions expected Friday in coastal valleys where temps near or exceeding 100 are possible.
Thursday will continue to scorch the interior valleys, heat lingers in the coastal valleys but thanks to that little bit of extra marine influence the beaches will still be the place to beat the heat.
Friday coastal valley temps spike as interior temps also stay hot. Thanks to lots of offshore winds the excessive heat warning for coastal valleys kicks into place as the interior warning could expire, but right now it looks like an extension might be needed... some high clouds filtering in from Hurricane Kay are expected to drift into the area filtering some sunshine.
You read that right, we are seeing the impacts of a hurricane here on the Central Coast. Now it is important to keep this clear, we are not talking about a hurricane making landfall on our coasts. But we are talking about a significant change in our weather associated with the system as it decays and is ejected into the pacific.
Hurricane Kay is off the Baja and traveling north slowly. It is already weakening and is expected to be downgraded first to a tropical storm off of the CA/Mexico boarder and then to a post tropical low. Even with all the weakening it is still going to cause a significant shift in our pattern. Much cooler weather is expected with the system and there will be large impacts associated with that influx of moisture. Rain, thunderstorms, and lightning are all elements we could experience.
Currently, the National Hurricane Center Track for Kay turns the dying system west, avoiding a landfall of the low-pressure center. Modeling also supports this notion but the it also indicates a significant rain event is possible. At this point there is a huge spread in amounts of rain we could see so it is important to look at the general picture right now, not necessarily the exact totals.
This is one of the models that I think is getting the pattern right, widespread rain with higher amounts (up to half an inch in some areas). Although actual totals are bound to change if the storm changes track at all.
However I think it is important to plan for the higher potential and expect something less, this is more true in SoCal where inches of rain are possible, especially in the hills and mountains.
There are also wave impacts from the storm, even a miss will have a lot of energy in the water, especially for south-facing beaches of the Southcoast and SoCal. Less so for west-facing beaches for much of the Central Coast.
Have a great day Central Coast!
