May gray for coastal spots continues

Night through morning low clouds will continue through the week for coast and valleys but will likely be less extensive Tuesday through Thursday. Temperatures inland will climb to slightly above normal Thursday then near to slightly below normal over the weekend as low pressure moves in and deepens the marine layer. Expect highs in the mid 60s to low 70s at the coast, inland spots are still very warm with Paso Robles getting back up to 90 and Ojai in the mid 80s, since the Santa Ynez Valley will see morning cloud cover highs there will be in the upper 70s.

Deep marine layer on Monday kept temperatures below average. Some areas along the south coast stayed cloudy all day while the Central Coast saw some sunshine. Santa Barbara and Goleta even squeezed out some measurable rain with a couple hundredths of an inch.

Slightly different scenario Tuesday as surface pressures increase across the interior and a weak ridge of high pressure moves in off the pacific. These factors should lower the marine layer depth to around 2000-2500' as warmer air aloft arrives, clear out the clouds earlier than today, warm up temps, especially inland, and generate some locally breezy northeast winds. Highs Tuesday expected to warm up
5-10 degrees inland but just slightly warmer closer to the coast with some clouds lingering at the beaches through the afternoon.

Some additional lowering of the marine layer is expected Wednesday as high pressure aloft strengthens, helping to warm inland areas a couple more degrees from Tuesday. However, northeast winds are expected to weaken as gradients trend back to onshore.

Thursday will begin a stretch of fairly strong onshore days where low clouds continue to hug the coast through the afternoon. Highs Thursday likely fairly similar to Wednesday as the ridge remains in place early on but then weakens in the afternoon as the next trough
approaches.

The latter half of the week into early next week will be dominated by strong onshore flow each afternoon and an upper level low dropping through California. This will once again deepen the marine layer, deepest likely Sunday morning, this will give us chilly temperatures for our weekend and a possibility of early morning drizzle.