textproduct: San Francisco Bay Area

KEY MESSAGES

Updated at 1124 PM PDT Wed May 6 2026

- Warming and drying trend beginning today through the early part of next week

- Temperatures peaking Monday

- Moderate risk for heat-related illnesses for sensitive populations across the inland valleys beginning this weekend

SHORT TERM

Issued at 1124 PM PDT Wed May 6 2026 (Tonight through Friday)

Low clouds are building inland from the coast, covering the bays and working their way into some of the interior valleys. Expect chances for pockets of fog overnight, with the strongest chances in the North Bay. Because of the marine layer's influence and the covering of stratus, overnight temperatures look fairly mild woth most areas seeing lows in the 50s and upper 40s. Only far interior valleys and higher peaks will fall further into the 40s.

Thursday will see a slow erosion of the lower cloud cover, keeping certain areas on the cooler side compared to the areas that stay clear. Inland cloud cover will start clearing in the mid morning, however areas around the bays will keep cloud cover into the late morning and early afternoon. The immediate coast looks to keep cloud cover through the day with moderate to breezy winds, making for much cooler highs than the rest of the area. Expect highs around 60 degrees along the immediate coast, then the 60s and 70s for areas more inland, and into the 80s for areas not experiencing the morning cloud cover. A few areas in the far interior portions of Monterey Co look to break 90 degrees.

Thursday night will offer fairly similar conditions to what we're seeing tonight, but with an earlier inland push of coastal stratus. This will lead to low clouds filling around the SF Bay and Monterey Bay in the mid evening and will cause a quicker cool-down. The lower clouds and the marine layer influence look to go slightly farther inland. This wont have too much of an effect in morning lows, but will make some areas a slightly cooler for Friday as they linger into the late morning and early afternoon.

While most areas will see slightly cooler conditions for Friday, a ridge builds to the north,leading to a small increase in temperatures for the interior North Bay. This will get things back on track for the weekend warming trend.

LONG TERM

Issued at 1124 PM PDT Wed May 6 2026 (Friday night through next Wednesday)

Friday night will continue to see the affects of the building ridge with a compression of the marine layer and a reduction in the overnight inland push of coastal stratus. Cloud cover will still be prevalent along the coast, but will struggle to enter the SF Bay and reach more of the inland areas.

The reduction of marine influence along with the building ridge calls for much more of the inland areas to break into the 80s for Saturday, while the coast sits in the low 60s, and the slightly inland areas stay in the 90s. A few of the more inland areas look to break into the mid 90s.

The reduction of the marine layer and building of the ridge continues into Monday, which looks to be the hottest day of the current forecast. Most of the interior valleys look to break into the 90s with widespread 80s for all but the near-coastal areas seeing the 60s and 70s. A building of a thermal belt will also call for much warmer lows on the higher peaks (60s and a few 70s) and will lead the peaks into the 90s as well from that warm start. Again the hottest area of the CWA looks to be interior Monterey Co, which will have a few spots looking to break 100 degrees.

The longer term forecast shows good cooling for Tuesday, yet things will stay on the warmer side as the ridge begins to flatten and push east. This will call for a slightly more zonal flow, leading to weak onshore winds into the mid week. The national blend of models looks to continue the steady cooling trend in the late week, but the latest batch of long term model updates are hinting more at another ridge building, which will warm things up again in the late week. The current forecast follows the blend, but as things continue to update, more considerations may need to be made for the potential warming trend.

AVIATION

(06Z TAFS) Issued at 1124 PM PDT Wed May 6 2026

MVFR/IFR clouds are building inland from the coast and look to reach each TAF site into the late night and early morning. LIFR conditions look to effect STS and HAF into the early morning and last through the mid morning, with some fog chances at STS as well. Winds will be mostly light overnight and through much of the morning. CLoud cover begins to erode for the more inland sites during the mid morning, but doesn't clear around the bays until the late morning and early afternoon. The exceptions will be HAF which sees cloud cover rise back to IFR then MVFR levels, but never fully clears. Expect moderate to breezy winds into Thursday afternoon with these winds reducing again into the late evening. CIGs will lower back to IFR levels along the coast into the evening and will begin to fill around the bays again before nightfall.

Vicinity of SFO...IFR CIGs last through the midday on Thursday with moderate west-northwest winds. Cloud cover scatters into the midday with lower clouds expected to clear in the mid afternoon as gusty west wind build. Gusts look to peak around 25 kts through the afternoon and evening. Winds reduce into the late evening as IFR CIGs build once again.

SFO Bridge Approach...Similar to SFO.

Monterey Bay Terminals...IFR CIGs and light winds are expected through the mid to late morning. CIGs lower slightly for MRY into the late night with some reductions in visibility. VFR returns in the mid morning, first at SNS then MRY. Winds look to stay light at MRY, but become more moderate for SNS in the mid afternoon. Winds reduce into Thursday evening with IFR CIGs returning.

MARINE

(Tonight through next Tuesday) Issued at 1124 PM PDT Wed May 6 2026

Winds from the northwest continue to increase. Fresh to strong north- northwest breezes will spread across both our coastal and outer waters for the weekend resulting in in building rough seas which will produce dangerous conditions for small crafts.

MTR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

CA...None. PZ...Small Craft Advisory from 9 PM Thursday to 3 AM PDT Saturday for Pt Arena to Pt Reyes 0-10 nm.

Small Craft Advisory from 3 AM Friday to 3 AM PDT Saturday for Pigeon Pt to Pt Pinos 0-10 nm-Pigeon Pt to Pt Pinos 10-60 NM-Pt Arena to Pt Reyes 10-60 NM-Pt Reyes to Pigeon Pt 0-10 nm.

Small Craft Advisory from 9 AM Thursday to 3 AM PDT Saturday for Pt Pinos to Pt Piedras Blancas 0-10 nm.