Category: Forecast

May 8, 2019 Summary: We will see a sneak attack through the back door beginning in another 18 to 20 hours or so.  A weak low currently over the Great Basin will actually retrograde.  Instead of moving from west to east as most storms do at this latitude, this one will move from east to…

May 8, 2019 Summary: The marine layer along the coast is more than 3,000 feet deep.  Even though there is not a particularly strong on shore flow, the modified sea breeze has made its way to the valley floor overnight.  Infrared satellite imagery shows coastal low clouds moving through the Delta and into the lower…

May 7, 2019 Summary: The low center which spawned scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms mainly over the mountains yesterday has now moved on and currently resides over western Arizona.  Upper level high pressure is centered off the coast of the Pacific Northwest while a broad trough of low pressure covers the interior west.  California is…

May 6, 2019 Summary: A weak upper low is centered right near Lompoc this morning and is moving slowly southeastward.  There are isolated pockets of light showers over the coast range and off shore, but the remainder of central California remains dry.  As of the time of this writing, Paso Robles was reporting light rain. …

May 5, 2019 Summary: Even though skies are mostly clear over the valley this morning, the first bands of cloud cover and shower activity are skirting the central California coast.  This storm is rather compact and is forecast to park just west of Santa Maria this afternoon.  Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will begin to…

May 4, 2019 Summary: We have another 24 hours of generally clear skies and above average temperatures.  Currently, we’re on the back side of upper level high pressure over the western states.  Already, however, there are small inklings of changes afoot.  The marine layer at the naval installation at Monterey yesterday was 500 feet.  This…

May 3, 2019 Summary: Upper level high pressure blankets the eastern Pacific Ocean and extends inland over most of the western one-third of the U.S. and into the Desert Southwest.  A closed low continues to develop several hundred miles west of the central coast.  Models show this system moving steadily eastward, eventually centering just off…

May 2, 2019 Summary: A trough of low pressure stretches from western Canada southward into Wyoming and Utah while a ridge of upper level high pressure is just off the California coast and will be moving inland over the next 72 hours.  In the meantime, well out over the Pacific is a closed low which…

May 1, 2019 Summary: The overall pattern still indicates a large trough of low pressure stretching from western Canada southward into the interior western U.S.  Meanwhile, upper level high pressure resides just off the California coast.  This has us in a west/northwest flow at the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere which is generating…

April 30, 2019 Summary: The low pressure system which resulted in scattered light showers over the south valley has now moved eastward into Arizona.  In the meantime, a new low will drop out of the Pacific Northwest and into northern Nevada this afternoon.  The combination of these two factors will put California in a northwest…