St. Patrick’s Day rain chances, March 17th forecast

**Wind Advisory posted for portions of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties through St. Patrick's Day

A stronger onshore flow along with increasing clouds is signaling that our next storm system is fast approaching the region. For the overnight, look for more clouds and chilly overnight low temperatures with most areas bottoming out in the 40's and 50's. Rain chances could come as early as about midnight, but the best chances should hold off through Sunday night.

 For St. Patrick's Day, we should see a decent chance for some light rain especially in our northern areas. At this time, rain totals should stay under a quarter of an inch for areas north of Point Conception and maybe a tenth of inch farther south. Mountain areas, especially wet and north facing, could pick up a bit more as gusty westerly winds kick in to gear with the passing storm system. Temperatures will stay cool to mild through Monday and then a gradual warm up is expected for much of next week. By next weekend, our forecast computer models even see some inland areas possibly hitting the 80 degree mark by next weekend. The Pacific storm track will stay busy pushing systems toward the West Coast with the net affect for us being an occasional increase in clouds and breezy to gusty northerly winds.