Wind Advisory remains in effect through 3 AM Saturday for the Santa Barbara County mountains and the South Coast of Santa Barbara County.  This advisory does include the area where the Gap Fire is burning.  Winds will blow between 15 and 30 miles per hour with gusts possibly approaching or even exceeding 40 miles per hour through early Saturday before subsiding shortly thereafter.  Once these winds do weaken, they should stay relatively calm through the late morning to early afternoon hours.  For the rest of  Saturday, Southern California slightly cooler temperatures due a weak weather system that moved inland to our north on Friday.  High pressure will build once again toward the start of next week and this means a return of warmer weather...in fact, inland areas will likely get very hot!  I will continue to monitor all of the latest developments surrounding the Gap Fire. 

Through the Fourth of July Weekend, scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop with daytime heating through parts of the Rockies, into the Southwest. A few isolated severe thunderstorms with damaging winds will be possible. Scattered showers will also move into the Pacific Northwest, as a cold front enters that area. The rest of the West will be dry. Afternoon high temperatures, through the weekend, will range from the lower and middle 100s over the Desert Southwest, to the 80s and 90s through the interior West. Highs will remain cool over the Pacific Northwest Coast, with 60s and 70s common there.

The Pacific Northwest will  have mostly cloudy skies this morning with a few showers around.  This afternoon we will see some sunbreaks with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s. Sunday starts off a long string of dry days.  Plan on a cloudy morning, followed by sunshine in the afternoon.  Highs will jump to the mid 70s. We get to the sun a little quicker on Monday and go mostly sunny on Tuesday.  Highs will break into the 80s by midweek. Right now the forecast models say the  regionshould be ready for more sunshine into the weekend.