More wind and fire concerns ahead, Monday January 13th forecast

Still keeping an eye on our next expected wind event as the latest Santa Ana begins to fade. More wind is expected for Monday and Red Flag Fire conditions are posted for most of Ventura County and interior portions of Santa Barbara as well as San Luis obispo Counties. Northeasterly winds will gust to as high 40 mph and possibly even higher through at least Tuesday. Cold air is pushing in from the north and this will help to amplify the wind and make for some chilly temperatures in areas that are wind protected. Portions of the Ojai Valley will be under a Freeze Warning for very early Monday. Look for all areas to be very sunny on Monday with highs mostly in the 60's expected.

A very tricky atmosphere is at play currently with high pressure dominating much of the West Coast. However, there is an area of low pressure which will meander across our region over the next several days. It is the same type of situation that we saw last week where a cut off low brought snow to the mountains of Southern California and literally a few hours later helped to exacerbate an offshore wind that brought the horrible fires to L.A County. This low is expected to stay just to our north and then drift in to the ocean, but it will need to be monitored closely. By mid week, we do expect the overall offshore winds to ease and then this area of low pressure will possibly drift back toward the east. Our forecast models are now low on confidence as to what this brings late in the work week. One model says we could see some showers while others see a return of a mild onshore flow and more marine influence. For now, we will stick to majority rule and keep the forecast dry and with no offshore wind. We will monitor the computer models closely and update our forecast as needed over the next several days.