Third time is the charm. Excellent weather is on tap.

The nice thing about variable weather is the views.

So I tried, more than once, to get this post up.  I apologize about the weather change over the last two days and the lack of posting.  I first noticed a change about mid day on Sunday and tried to get the information out there.  And then again on Monday.  What happened is that a portion of the storm that ran into British Columbia over the weekend broke off to the south and impacted our area yesterday and this morning.  It really felt like a typical summer fog bank yesterday.  A wet drizzly one at that.  It was a very wet day in Santa Cruz on Monday after following a pretty amazing fall weekend.  All that moved to our east this morning, and after some low morning clouds, the sun came back out.  Many of the west facing beaches (hello Ocean Beach) remained foggy and damp.

The next few days will bring in some excellent fall weather.  Here in Santa Cruz we can expect mid 70s to even 80F during the peak on Thursday.  Up in the city and other coastal locals will be seeing mid 60s for the most part.  It will be nice over the hill with 80s through much of the San Jose Basin, with the best locations possibly breaking into the 90s (hello LG) on Thursday.  Further inland, the central valleys should be expecting mid 80s, so this is not your typical summer heat pumped in from the southwestern desserts.  This is fall time goodness, and much of the coast will break away from all the fog by Thursday.  In fact, it will be a rare pocket.  This weather to persist through next week; a few clouds (just enough to make it pretty) for the weekend.

Monarch season is on.  Gonna be a lot of these pics, cause they are a great subject.

The big news around is the large NW swell starting to impact our coast this evenings.  Swells have been showing on the buoys  around 6 feet at 25 seconds.  That is a huge period folks.  So what that means is long waits in between sets, but those 6 foot swells will wall up to 12-15 foot faces at deep water breaks like Mavericks.  By morning, the period should drop down below 18 seconds, but swell heights could exceed 10 feet.  Lots of big wave action on tap for Wednesday, with still good sized waves for Thursday and beyond.  We also are seeing a decent sized late season south swell arrive by Friday.  So the outlook for the weekend is good.  Sun and swell.  We may even get a little off shore action to happen by later in the week.  At the very least, we are in a lighter wind pattern.  Which means more places to surf as we see the 2nd fall swell of the season.  And even though Mavs got surfed during the last one, this may be the season opener.  If you can, get out there over the next few days.  And as always, be careful out there and know your limits.

West Cliff Drive and Its Beach in Santa Cruz, just after the storm.

Long term, thing look pretty nice through the month of October.  We see mostly high pressure on top of us, and through the Gulf of Alaska for the rest of this week.  Next Monday, a storm system moves over the date line and into the northern Gulf.  Some swell making potential, but that is it.  This storm stays well to the north.  Another follows, just a bit further south, later next week.  By around the 22nd, a larger scale low pressure system may take residence up in the gulf, pushing waves around it.  If this things starts to sag a bit further south, we may see another chance of rain near month's end.  Otherwise, things look dry and calm around here.  Perhaps you should go out and enjoy some apple picking.  Or a stroll through the coastal hills.  Might even make a trip up to the Mendocino coast before things get too wet up there.  Regardless, it looks like we should have some nice weather in the near and mid term.