Cold front, low pressure system brings wind, rain and snow to Monterey County.

After a tantalizing stint of warm conditions in recent weeks, winter weather is back with a vengeance in Monterey County, bringing rain, wind and even snow to areas of the Central Coast. 

“We’re continuing to see a series of low-pressure systems come through the region,” says National Weather Service Meteorologist Brayden Murdoch. “Earlier in the week, we had the first cold front and low-pressure come through. This is another instance of that, but now we’re having much more cold air coming through.”

Murdoch mentioned that the cold air has led to snowfall on Chews Ridge and other high-elevation areas in the county. 

“We actually had that cold air meet up with moisture coming from our current system,” Murdoch says. “A lot of times when we have a cold front and a low-pressure system come through, there’s usually a lull in between the cold air passing through and then the next moisture, and that’s why we miss our snow chances a lot more often. But with this, it’s just back-to-back systems.” 

Murdoch said there will be scattered showers Tuesday evening, Feb. 17, and into Wednesday morning, with a lull in precipitation Wednesday afternoon and another wave of showers and possible thunderstorms Wednesday night, Feb. 18. 

“We’re far from being done,” Murdoch says. “Along with it, some of these waves of showers will be giving us some strong winds. Luckily, not long-lasting winds, but still enough to make that commute a bit on the dangerous side for certain folks.”

A quarter to a half an inch of rain is expected on Thursday with a high near 56 degrees and wind gusts as high as 29 miles per hour. Thursday night, the chance of rainfall is 50 percent with a low around 38 degrees. There may be a break from the rain on Friday with a 20-percent chance of precipitation before 4pm and a chance of rain on Friday night with a projected high around 38 degrees. Rain is likely to continue through the weekend.