Freeze Watch for Interior SLO County, High Wind Warning for Santa Barbara County

On By Littum

Weather headlines:

-Large systems passing through the western United States will bring several episodes of strong to damaging winds and dangerous fire weather conditions to parts of California over the next few days.

-The weather forecast will remain largely dry through next week.

Detailed weather forecast:

Significant jet energy is extending through the back of an upper trough that is slowly shifting eastward over the Great Basin early this weekend.

A jet streak will penetrate the base of the trough Saturday night and into Sunday over Arizona, leaving Southern California with abundant surface settlement from the Central California Valley to the Central Great Basin.

The strong upper-level support and offshore pressure gradients will support 60-80 mph damaging northwest-to-north wind gusts Sunday from the I-5 corridor through the Ventura County mountains to the Santa Barbara County Interior Mountains and the eastern Santa Ynez Range from evening to Sunday afternoon.

As a result, a High Wind Warning has been issued for Santa Barbara County until 18.00 Sunday.

On Sunday, the easterly displacement of the surface ridge across the central Great Basin will turn more strongly offshore.

On the other hand, the wind will swing to a northeasterly direction, with the stronger winds focusing on Santa Ana’s wind-exposed areas.

Downward drying in this pattern will combine with the strong to damaging winds to create critical fire weather conditions.

Low to moderate winds are expected to ease later Monday into Tuesday.

Minimal temperature changes are expected from day to day, with a slight warming trend through the early parts of the coming week.

High temperatures on Tuesday should be in the 70s in most areas.

In conjunction with the aforementioned extension of surface smoking amid the drying deep layer profile, ample nighttime radiative cooling will allow Sunday night low temperatures to reach the 30-32F range, guaranteeing a freeze watch for the Southern Salinas Valley, San Luis Obispo County Interior Valleys, and Antelope Valley.

Otherwise, the strong subsidence-induced drying will prevent precipitation development.