Peculiar weather forecast expected from 8/1 into next week. The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch for the interior mountains of Santa Barbara County starting Thursday, August 1 at 12 pm through the evening of Friday, August 2. There is a low potential for isolated to scattered thunderstorms that can bring dry lightning, strong winds and rainfall to these areas; probabilities are much greater for parts of LA, Ventura, and Kern Counties and within central California. However, forecasters are seeing considerable volatility with this storm. Per NWS, there is a 50% chance this Watch will be upgraded to a Red Flag Warning by tomorrow morning.
Forecasts are also showing higher temperatures that will specifically impact the Santa Ynez and Cuyama Valleys starting this weekend, though no heat warning products have yet to be issued. OEM will monitor the forecast for significant changes or concerns. Please see the attached NWS briefing slides for details, and visit https://www.weather.gov/lox/ for up-to-date weather information.
A thunderstorm/heat event page in English and Spanish has been published on www.ReadySBC.org with fire weather and high heat safety tips. We also plan to post information through County and OEM social media platforms and disseminate low-level (Tier 1) ReadySBC Alerts to impacted areas tomorrow morning.
Late Week Thunderstorms and Weekend Heat