If you didn't have satellites or models you'd never know a system was closing in today on the Central Coast.
After early low clouds, there was plenty of sunshine Wednesday for the Central Coast.
Conditions will change overnight. A weak cold front will move over the Central Coast with some southerly winds and showers into Thursday morning. Clouds will rush into the coastal valleys this evening and while some showers could develop before midnight the larger coverage waits until the hours before sunrise when the leading edge of the cold front arrives on the west-facing beaches.
The initial front essentially washes out over the area which will likely produce a small gap in the rain in the afternoon but by late afternoon and early evening scattered showers and even some isolated thunderstorms look to develop. Rain rates with the second part of the storm will be higher than the first. An upper-level trough will linger into Friday morning producing more scattered rain showers and a continued chance for isolated thundershowers.
Models disagree on rain potential. I am sticking with my range of .10-.75" with most of the area fitting in the .10-.50" range.
Thursday will be a cool day with the clouds and showers.
Snow levels locally will be rather high, starting around 6000ft and dropping a bit to about 4000ft at the end of the system. Not a huge deal locally but the Sierra Nevada could see some areas getting a few feet of snow.
After the system departs, Friday looks cool and the weekend looks breezy to windy as a ridge of high pressure starts to build in. Temps will jump on Sunday with inland areas returning to the 80s and much of the coast away from the beaches in the 70s, beaches in the 60s.
Temps back off a bit toward the middle of next week. I don't see much after this system, which could be the last significant one of the 2021-22 rain season. This will not fix drought-related concerns but late-season rains can be beneficial.
