Rain, wind, waves and fog awaited Christmas Eve

Good morning, Central Coast! Happy Christmas Eve, there’s a lot going on today with rain, wind, waves and even thick fog moving over the Central Coast today.

Before I get to all that, if you and your little ones are tracking Santa, here’s a look at the NORAD Santa Tracker!

Here’s a look at your interactive radar!

Here’s a quick discussion of the forecast from meteorologist Vivian Rennie!

Now as far as the weather forecast goes, the main headline on Monday was the surf, which continues to be an active problem today, with a slight calming this morning, but local wind gusts of up to 18 feet are still expected by midday today. Here’s a look at the wave heights as of 5:30 am

That’s enough for that Warning of high surf is still valid until midday today. At this point a High surf advice will apply to all beaches (currently only applies to our south coast communities). The notice will remain in effect until Wednesday at 9 p.m.

There is also one Coastal flood warning in effect until 9am this morning for our western beaches. This is due to the risk of some waves inundating low-lying coastal areas.

As for rain, a weak storm system is moving through the region, bringing widespread light rain. The majority of this will fall to our north, but we can expect around a third of an inch of rain, while the far south coast will only see a few hundred inches of rain.

In addition to the rain, we also have some strong winds. This will result in gusts of over 50 mph by mid-morning as the cold front pushes through. The worst impact will be felt along the Gaviota coast.

With all of these changes, today will also be much cooler than we have seen recently. This is a noticeable shift. Last week we had some temperatures in the 80s, today it was just in the upper 60s with one or two 60s.

The sky will clear up tomorrow morning. Christmas Day and Thursday should be sunny and dry but rather cool. Gusty winds can still occur, especially in the mountains.

Starting Friday, we will see a gradual warming trend over the weekend and into next week. Expect temperatures in the 70s in inland valleys and mid to upper 60s along the coast.

There is a small chance of light showers along the Central Coast later on Friday and again on Sunday, but overall it looks mostly dry for the first week of January.

Have a wonderful day on the Central Coast!