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Microclimate weather rules the week so far with cool beaches and hot interior temps

Gold flowers in SLO County making for a beautiful farm photo
Posted at 4:18 PM, May 24, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-24 19:35:21-04

Tuesday is likely the warmest day the interior valleys will see in a while.

(addition at 4:35pm)

Interestingly Tuesday offered a huge variety of highs from 50s at the coolest beaches to 100 inland. Why? Marine clouds lingered at the Southcoast and some Central Coast beaches while onshore flow dominated the near coastal flow.

Cool marine air is dense and the depth of the marine layer was too low to allow the cool air into the interior.

The biggest factor driving those conditions is the position of the jet stream. Currently, the ridge in the jet stream is right over the Central Coast which promotes high pressure and squishes the marine layer down to coastal areas.

The jet stream ridge will slide east into Wednesday and Thursday weakening the surface high pressure, in other words, interior areas will slowly cool. Coastal conditions may not change much as coastal low clouds during the night and morning hours with some areas experiencing limited clearing will keep some beaches and near coastal valleys cool.

By Friday and thru the holiday weekend the jet stream pattern becomes "zonal" which means mostly west to east. This should force temps to plateau near seasonal norms into next week.

I have been asked a few times about winds for the holiday weekend. This zonal pattern should produce some NW winds in the 15-25mph range in the afternoons, this will help clear out any night and morning marine layer but keep beaches and near coastal valleys mild but it is a good bit breezier than the conditions of the last several days.