Toasty.

Have you crawled your self out of your cave yet?  It is gorgeous out there today.  Clouds began to break yesterday afternoon, but a marine layer filled in over night.  Took a while for that to burn off, but burn off it did.  And it is warm.  Like mid 60s warm.  Light breeze.  It doesn't get much better than this in January.  Well, except in last year's drought.  Not that that is over.  But we have seen improvements from three months ago of about 4% reduction in the areas of the state that are in severe, extreme and exceptional drought.  That still leaves 43% of the state in exceptional drought, and Santa Cruz remains classified as extreme.  So do what you can to insure that this rain water drains into the earth and not down some paved pathway to the sea.  We have a good bit more on the way, but more significantly, we have a break on our hands.

Early morning is the way to go.

Yesterday saw one and quarter inches of rain fall on the west side.  That is a good dose, especially considering that it stopped raining in ernest before noon.  Today is dry.  Ish.  Puddles abound out there.  A great day for stomping.  As will be tomorrow.  It could be cold in the morning, as the sky is fairly clear.  All that heat will radiate out to space.  But the storm approaching for Friday looks a bit slow, and I would suspect we see sun much of the day Thursday.  Another mid 60s day.  Clouds fill in late.  Rain approaches the coast overnight.  Right now it looks like the first wave of the storm will arrive early Friday morning and pass through mid day.  Light to moderate accumulations.  But rainy, if a bit sporadic.  This part of the storm will be relatively warm, with highs in the low 60s Friday.  There could be a break in the rain overnight, with the second wave bringing colder air and much more water early in the morning hours Saturday.  It should pass through here pretty quickly, but we should have another inch plus of rain by the time it moves to our east mid afternoon Saturday.  Highs will stay in the 50s.  Then on Sunday, the sun returns and it warms back into the 60s.  Then we could see sunshine through next Thursday.  You'll get to work on your tan.