Bundle up Santa Cruz.

It is cool and foggy out there.  Early morning hours bring a light drizzle.  Brrr.  So, this is summer on the Central Coast.  Feels like the fog bank of 2010 has returned.  But that is not the case.  We must endure a few more days of fog not really burning off along the coastal bench, and then things will clear back to normal.  Or at least what has been the norm so far this August.  Sure, there will still be fog, but it won't be as cold and it won't last as long.


A one, two punch of low pressure systems moving through the Gulf of Alaska are in part to blame for the current weather.  While these systems will stay clearly to our north, they are pumping cool, moist air  down the coast.  As the wind gradient gets suppressed by the storms moving across the north edge of the high pressure, we don't have the requisite on shore wind to blow out the fog.  So it sticks around all day, and the mornings are especially cool and damp.  So, for Santa Cruz, we see low 50s and high 60s as the daily range.  Things should warm slightly as we move into next work week.  Mid 70s by next week.  The storms get pushed inland between Alaska and Portland.  Most rain will fall in Canada, but some could spread south through the Cascades.  If you want to avoid the coolness here on the coast, you can just head inland.  Mid 70s in the Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as in the Sierra Nevada.  Even warmer in the inland valleys.  They are still in the 90s.  I'll take a little fog.  It has been excellent mountain bike weather.  You can even go mid day.

In short, less fog and warmer weather after we move through the weekend.  In the long view, models keep projecting continued low pressures moving through the north eastern Pacific, the Bearing Sea and somewhat into the Gulf of Alaska.  Each model run can see changes in the forecast.  Regardless, the models are beginning to pick up on a possible pattern change developing in the north.  It could be a fluke, or it could be the start of the Turn.