Rain chances ahead, forecast for Sunday Dec 17th

Another sun splashed day with light offshore winds and very mild to warm temperatures. This latest round of breezy northeasterly winds will start to wrap up as high pressure slowly pushes eastward. In fact, Sunday will see the initial first bands of moisture of what could be a wet week ahead. Look for overnight lows to stay mild when the light Santa Anas and Santa Lucias blow from the northeast. Wind protected areas will be much cooler with lows in the 40's and even 30's. Highs on Sunday will be once again above normal with many areas in the mid to upper 70's despite the increasing cloud cover approaching from the ocean. We expect to stay dry for all areas on Sunday with maybe a slight chance for a late evening sprinkle along the Central Coast.

Looking ahead, as has been the case so often so far this rain season, we are watching a very tricky area of low pressure meandering just to the west of Northern California. We are fairly confident that all areas will see some rain as we head through first part of next week. The Central Coast will likely see receive the most rainfall with possibly up to an inch or more for some areas. South of Point Conception will only see a a few light showers and at this time, we expect less than a half an inch at best. Winds will turn more southerly and could get gusty along our foothills and mountains with good southerly exposure. The southerly flow also means that temperatures will cool, but not be overly cold. Snow levels will therefore be pretty high which means ski resorts in Southern California seeing mostly rain. A second wave of moisture is poised to swing in with the low and this is the one that could be more southerly and bring good rainfall top all areas including south of Point Conception. Details are still not solid as our forecast models are not completely in agreement with regard to timing and intensity. We will need to watch closely for change, but we should be seeing more showers and perhaps heavy rain by the second half of the work week for Thursday and Friday. By Saturday, we expect the the storm system to have moved far enough south and east to allow for a return of some sunshine and drying out. We will be vigilant and keep ahead of expected timing and intensity details and of course, pass that on to you all week long.