Warm and windy weather coming to SLO County. Here’s how blustery it will be

John Lindsey

June 16, 2024 at 8:00 a.m.·3 min read

Last week, a trough of low pressure over the Central Coast produced moderate northwesterly winds with a deep and persistent marine layer and mild temperatures.

This week, gale-force northwesterly winds and mostly clear skies are forecast along with seasonal temperatures.

East of the Rocky Mountains will be a much different story.

An upper-level high-pressure system centered over the Midwest is expected to produce a historic heat wave breaking numerous high-temperature records.

A dry cold front moved through Central California and, combined with the Eastern Pacific High centered about 1,000 miles to the west Central California, created a steep pressure gradient along the Central California coastline resulting in increasing northwesterly winds this weekend.

In fact, moderate gale-force to fresh gale-force (32 to 46 mph, with gusts up to 55 mph) northwesterly winds are forecast along the coastline on Sunday and Monday afternoon and evening, decreasing during the overnight. These winds will decrease to gale-force (25 to 38 mph) levels on Tuesday and will continue at this level through next Saturday.

As the winds depart, they will leave behind clear skies throughout San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties this week. Over this period, high temperatures will reach the high 80s to the low 90s in the inland valleys (Paso Robles), high 70s to low 80s in the coastal valleys (San Luis Obispo), and 60s along the beaches, except for Cayucos, Avila Beach and Shell Beach, which will reach the high-70s.

The longer-range models indicate that this weather pattern will continue through the following week.

Surf report

Moderate gale-force to fresh gale-force (32 to 46 mph) northwesterly winds along the Northern and Central California coastline will generate high northwesterly seas (11- to 13-feet with a 4- to 9-second period) on Saturday through Monday, decreasing to 5 to 7 feet (with a 5- to 8-second period) on Tuesday and will remain at this level through next Saturday.

Combined with these northwesterly seas, there will be 1- to 2-foot southern hemisphere swell (with a 16- to 18-second period) Monday through Tuesday.

Significant upwelling this week will drop surface seawater temperatures to the high 40s to low 50s by Monday and will remain at this level through next Saturday.

This week in weather history (June 16)

1806: A total eclipse of the sun was viewed from Southern California to Massachusetts. (David Ludlum)

1917: The temperature soared to 124 degrees at Mecca, California, capping the most destructive heat wave of record in state history. (David Ludlum)

1944: A tornado in Sioux City, Iowa, traveled an odd course. It spun in one place for about 20 minutes, made a U-turn, traveled southeast for about three miles, then traveled south, east, north and finally east again.

2016: A large area of low pressure from the northwest off the California coast continued to bring unseasonably cool temperatures across the Central Coast. Paso Robles only reached 74 degrees, or about 15 degrees below normal.

2021: The San Luis Obispo County Airport hit 109 degrees, smashing the previous daily record high of 101 degrees in 1981. High-level clouds kept the inland areas cooler, but the gusty Santa Lucia (northeasterly) winds caused the coastal valleys to heat up rapidly. In fact, the Diablo Canyon Meteorological Tower reported sustained northeasterly winds of just 15 mph with gusts to 48 mph at 7:45 a.m. At the same time, the air temperature peaked at 84.8 degrees.

This week’s temperatures

LOWS AND HIGHS, PASO ROBLES

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
51,92	51,87	50,89	53,89	56,96	57,92	55,87	54,88

LOWS AND HIGHS, SAN LUIS OBISPO AND COASTAL VALLEYS

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
52,80	52,77	53,80	53,81	55,85	53, 81	54,79	54,78

John Lindsey is a retired PG&E marine meteorologist. Email him at JohnLindseyLosOsos@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @PGE_John.

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Surf report

This week in weather history (June 16)

This week’s temperatures

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