This SLO County city just broke a heat record. How long will high temperatures stick around?
One San Luis Obispo County spot broke a 22-year-old heat record on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
The city of Paso Robles hit a low of 69 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday night, squeezing past the 68-degree record low established in 2000.
“That’s pretty warm,” local meteorologist John Lindsey said, noting that the average low temperature in Paso Robles in August is 53 degrees.
Lindsey said cloud cover “acted like a blanket” and trapped heat in the city, causing high nighttime temperatures.
San Luis Obispo County is also experiencing monsoon moisture, Lindsey said, which is when air rotates clockwise around a high pressure area and drags subtropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to SLO County — creating more humidity.
Studies show that people tend to turn on their air conditioners when the temperature exceeds 68 degrees In inland areas of the county, Lindsey said.
However, many people don’t have air conditioning and open their windows at night to cool down their homes, he added.
“The overnight lows of only 69 degrees doesn’t provide enough cooling for your house,” Lindsey said. “As human beings, we can handle a hot day, generally speaking. But at night, we need cooler temperatures for our bodies to recover. When it stays warm all night long, your body doesn’t get a real chance to recover.”
Luckily, Lindsey said nighttime temperatures are forecast to cool down in inland areas this week.
Daytime temperatures will remain high in inland areas, with heat spiking on Wednesday at about 100 degrees and plateauing in the mid-90s for the rest of the week, he said.
“Fresh, strong northwesterly winds” will blow into the coast on Tuesday afternoon, Lindsey said.
Temperatures will hover around 60 degrees Fahrenheit in coastal areas with the potential for some light drizzling, he said.
“It’ll feel like a spring type of weather pattern,” Lindsey said.
Temperatures will spike at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday in the city of San Luis Obispo, and drop to the high 70s later in the week, Lindsey said.
How is Tropical Storm Frank impacting SLO County?
Tropical Storm Frank is blowing in the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles West of the California coast, Lindsey said.
The National Weather Service Bay Area tweeted that the tropical storm will “dissipate well offshore from California this week” before it could hit the coastline.
The storm is too far from the coast to produce any rain or humidity in SLO County, Lindsey said.
The storm is is creating larger waves in SLO County, with a swell of about two to four feet with a 12 to 14 second period, Lindsey said.
