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Forecast Discussion:
It is shorts and t-shirt weather again (at least for December). The upper air map from last night shows the big west coast ridge that we are on the downhill side of (Figure 1). Note the interesting low under the ridge down in the Pacific ocean off of Mexico and the Baja Peninsula. It is pumping moisture northward (Figure 1 and 2) at the mid- and upper levels. Nothing for our weather, but it sort of looks like the summer monsoon pattern!
I did check (Figure 3) on the southern California smoke to see if any of that smoke is headed here. For now, that smoke is all going out to sea by the same east to west flow that creates the Santa Anna winds causing the fire problems in the first place. Any smoke you smell or see will be local fields (hopefully planned agricultural burning).
The longer range forecast:
Figure 4 is the upper air map for next Saturday night when a hint of a trough seems to be possible. This might give us a break from the near continuous near-60F highs of the week. More later!