Heat wave on the way, forecast for Sunday Aug 27th

Building high pressure from the east is beginning to push the temperature upward across our region. Heat Advisories and even Warnings are in place for most inland areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. The expected high temperatures could easily reach well in to the hundreds with just the coastline seeing relief with a very weak on shore flow. It looks like the Central Coast will be spared the hottest temperatures as again, a light onshore flow will stay in play. All advisories and warnings are expected to last in to next week as we get ready to say goodbye to August. Overnight lows will also stay quite warm with some areas struggling to dip below the 80-degree mark and many areas staying firmly in the 70's all night. Sunday's highs will be in the 70's and 80's near the coast with 90's and 100's quickly being the norm just inland of the very weak sea breeze. We could also see moderate to strong Sundowner Winds develop for late afternoons and early evenings. This is typical for heat waves as temperatures cool faster at the tops of our mountains creating down sloping winds. No advisories are posted, but we need to keep a close eye on wind speeds, especially near the Gaviota and Hollister areas. Finally, with the weak onshore flow in place, some very patchy, but possibly dense fog is expected right along the immediate coastline for the late night early morning hours. 

Looking head, high pressure will gradually break down by about mid week allowing for the onshore flow to increase. This means the heat wave will ebb as we transition from August to September. Temperatures should cool to near normal just in time for next weekend. We could even go slightly below normal with a solid marine layer developing as well. Some of our forecast models also see a hint of Monsoonal moisture sneaking up from the southeast by next weekend. This will need to be watched closely as head through next week.