Things should cool off over the weekend
Af ter people flocked to the beach with temperatures in the upper 80s Thursday and Friday, the Monterey Peninsula forecast calls for a cooling period over the weekend into early next week.
While the National Weather Service did not include Monterey County in its red f lag warning, the heatwave led to a heat advisory for the county as temperatures near the coast approached 90 degrees and inland areas got close to triple digits. Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist for the weather service, said Friday was likely to be the hottest day of the week.
“Over the weekend, things get a bit more easy to deal with,” he said. “(Saturday), maybe a few areas around the Monterey Peninsula will get up
to the 80s but for the most part the closer you are to the coast, the more likely you are to be seeing 60s to lower 70s.”
As of early Friday afternoon, the Monterey A irpor t had reached 88 degrees and Murdock said there was a chance it would hit 90 degrees. Thursday, Monterey reached 89 degrees while Carmel Valley reached 96 degrees, Salinas got up to 97 and Pinnacles National Park had a high of 98 degrees.
With the heat advisory expired, inland parts of the region will be in the 70s and 80s today, with some higher elevations toward the middle part of Monterey County still getting into the 90s.
“As we head into Sunday, it’s going to be a lot more widespread 60s and 70s,” Murdock said. “Even those warmer parts of Monterey County will be try
ing to fall back into the 80s. We actually stay there Monday and Tuesday.”
Wednesday might see a slight increase in temperatures in some areas, but they will drop closer to seasonal averages later in the week.
As Northern California cools off over the weekend, the winds will die down as well. The red flag warning for the Santa Cruz Mountains, North Bay mountains and East Bay Hills is set to expire Friday night for some areas and this morning for others.
While the Santa Lucia Range above the Big Sur Coast was not included in the warning, a hotspot f lared up Thursday in the Dolan Fire perimeter and continued to send smoke up Friday. A helicopter crew worked to extinguish the hotspot and firefighters will continue to monitor the fire area for more hotspots. The Dolan Fire is 98% contained and has burned 124,924 acres.
“There’s still going to be some dry conditions around where the Dolan Fire is,” Murdock said. “We’re still keeping an eye on those conditions.”
PG& E shut off the power for 636 customers in the Big Sur area earlier in the week as a precaution during the fire weather. It said the restoration of power was expected for most customers by Friday night.
Murdock said there are currently no major rainstorms in the long- range forecast that could put an end to fire season.
“The environment that we’re setting up for here within the next week is just not setting up any good rain chances,” he said.