A beautiful bounce back

It’s good to be in San Diego. Just a statement for always, but also specifically now, where last week, weather bounced back pretty nicely after significant rain caused problems for most of Southern California early last week. It continued a trend of flooding rain across the region to start 2024. It wasn’t quite the issue to end last week. After a chilly beginning on Thursday, temperatures started climbing and the sun came out, preventing even wispy morning fog. The Weather Channel turned out the top forecast, narrowly edging their oppoinents.
Actuals: Thursday – High 63, Low 51
Friday – High 73, Low 51

Grade: A- C

San Diego, California

We’re forecasting in southern California today. It’s been a rainy start to the week, which has become a regular trend this month.

At 751AM, ET, San Diego was reporting a temperature of 51 degrees with overcast skies. The most recent band of rain showers was still leading to reports of light rain in Oceanside, but was starting to peel away from the coastal areas, and becoming an issue primarily for the Inland Empire and Mohave Desert. In the wake of another rain event, there are flood watches throughout the San Diego area.
A smattering of light showers will continue throughout the day, particularly in the higher terrain of southern California, with an end coming before nightfall. Robust onshore flow at the upper levels will likely lead to some cloudy conditions even after the rain ends. A large area of low pressure off the coast of northern California is expected to linger, sending moisture rich ocean air at the low levels as well, which may mean morning fog the next couple of days in San Diego, but there will be a break from the rain until at least next week.
Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy, High 61, Low 52
Friday – Morning haze and fog, then clearing, High 70, Low 51

TWC: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy. High 64, low 51
Friday – Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 70, Low 50

AW: Tomorrow – Areas of fog in the morning; otherwise, clouds giving way to some sun; a welcome break from recent heavy rain High 64, Low 49
Friday – Patchy fog in the morning; otherwise, clouds giving way to some sun High 70, Low 49

NWS: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny High 64, Low 49
Friday – Sunny, High 70, Low 50

WB: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 62, Low 50
Friday – Partly cloudy in the morning, becoming mostly sunny, High 68, Low 48

WN: tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 64, low 51
Friday – Mostly sunny, High 68, Low 51

CLI: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 64, Low 48
Friday – Sunny, High 70, Low 45

What a relief for San Diego to start coming out of this soggy week. It might even warm up a bit over the coming days and help San Diego feel more like San Diego again. Not much left on radar, fortunately.

Tallahassee, Florida to San Diego, California

Hello, and happy weekend! In the dead heat of summer, a road trip across the southern US sounds like the last thing one might want to do, but frankly, most cars have functioning air conditioning, so why not? It will take us a surprisingly swift 4 days at a pace of 70+mph, which is pretty close to our top speed, maybe ever. This will allow us to cover the 2176 miles between the towns in 561 mile chunks (a little less, somehow, on Day 4). Let’s blow the doors off this thing, huh?

DAY ONE (Saturday)

Tallahassee, Florida

Thunderstorms are raging in the Plains tonight, from Colorado and Nebraska southeast through Iowa and Illinois. They will continue to shift to the east southeast through the day. Bad news for the middle of the country but good news for drivers on the Gulf Coast. The showers and storms will be focused along this axis of instability, and will steer clear of the immediate Gulf Coast, leaving only a little bit of spotty activity between Mobile and New Orleans, but not much else. Our day will end on the east side of Lake Charles, still reeling from the last hurricane season. Thankfully, we’ve been quiet so far.

DAY TWO (Sunday)
That feature in the middle of the country is going to slow down and wind up over the weekend. A cold front will develop over north Texas and become evident by the evening in the Dallas area, but we aren’t driving through north Texas or Dallas. It will stay Texas hot and Texas dry in the southern part of the state. We’ll get just west of Ozona before we conclude our drive for Sunday.

DAY THREE (Monday)
The drive will continue through mostly pleasant conditions on Monday, but the seasonal monsoon is underway out west. The slightly elevated ground along the New Mexico – Arizona border could provide some fertile ground for scattered thunderstorms, and we might see a splash west of Lordstown, New Mexico. They will mostly be wrapped up, but still possible as we slide into Wilcox, east of Tucson.

DAY FOUR (Tuesday)
A similar pattern is expected for Tuesday. Importantly, this means that showers and storms will wait until late in the day to develop, and will generally be confined to the same spots on Tuesday as they were on Monday. That is to say, they will be most likely in the New Mexico/Arizona border region, which we will long be out of by the time thunderstorms develop. It’s just the hot, dry desert for us through Arizona and inland California, with the pearl at the end of the drive, beautiful San Diego.

San Diego, California