Temps for most of the Central Coast today got into the 70s and 80s, with some locations threatening 90s. At least three records fell on Wednesday:
We will see more near-record highs thru Friday as more offshore flow continues. There is a little disturbance dropping thru the Sierra to our east. This little feature will actually give a little additional energy to the offshore flow into Thursday morning.
What is interesting about this new little disturbance is that it includes some slightly cooler air but that air looks to modify and warm as it sinks and compresses so the net impact on temps both tonight and tomorrow looks minimal.
Sunday will be the last day of this prolonged and impressive winter heatwave. Offshore flow is expected to weaken and we`ll likely see an earlier sea breeze arrival, a significant cooling trend will begin Monday and continue into Tuesday. We will also likely see strong winds in the Santa Barbara county mountains early next week.
However, most mid-range forecasts still show the ridge in place thru much of the balance of February. There are a few systems showing up on models which could deliver very small amounts of rain but nothing robust is in any model I've seen so expect Feb. to fall well short of average unless this pattern breaks more significantly.
