Santa Ana winds will pick up into tonight, though this will be a mild to moderate wind event compared to the strong event we had earlier this month. Winds peak tonight into early tomorrow morning with weaker offshore winds sticking around through early Friday.
Expect gusts of 20 to 40mph and isolated gusts to 50mph, and humidity levels between 10 and 25%, leading to elevated fire danger. In comparison, the wind event a couple of weeks ago had peak gusts over 80 and even 90mph.
The Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index is forecasting a 'Moderate' threat for the rest of today, dropping to a 'Marginal' threat on Wednesday, meaning that any fires that spark may grow rapidly.
Today was a warm one with temperatures topping out in the mid-70s to low-80s inland, 60s along the coast and in the mountains, and mid to upper 70s in the deserts. That's 5 to 15 degrees above average.
It will be even warmer tomorrow when temperatures soar up to 20 degrees above normal! I'm forecasting record highs in Ramona at 83 degrees and 80 in Alpine, but we'll be close in San Diego, Escondido, Palomar Mountain, and Vista. Tomorrow will be the warmest day of the week, but it will be nearly as warm Thursday when a few more record highs will be within reach.
Friday will be our transition day out of this pattern, with winds gradually turning onshore and the sea breeze returning this weekend. Temperatures gradually cool into the weekend but still remain 3 to 10 degrees above average away from the coast.
Heading into the week of Christmas, there is a slight chance of showers on Christmas Eve. However, latest forecast models have this storm pushing farther north and missing us, like has happened with nearly every storm this season. In fact, we are on track to see the 3rd driest October to December period on record in San Diego. We have only seen .14" of rain since the water year began on October 1st, which is 8% of normal. The driest period was in 1929 when we only got a trace of rain, then in 2017 San Diego only got .09" and after this year the next driest is .24" in 1962.
Winter is coming! The winter solstice occurs at 1:20 AM on Saturday.
Wednesday's Highs:
Coast: 70-81°
Inland: 82-85°
Mountains: 61-74°
Deserts: 78-81°
Follow ABC 10News Meteorologist Megan Parry on Facebook at Megan Parry 10News, Instagram @mis_meg_wx and Twitter @10NewsParry.
