Unlike the day-lubbers who watch the weather clowns on late night TV, we don't need no stinking ... temperatures! We need cloud cover, wind patterns, fog distributon, and the depth of the marine layer. Here's the good sites...
The NOAA SF/Monterey Bay area detailed weather forecast
Selected ClearSkyClocks
Balloon soundings. Once you're in, click on the map's "OAK" symbol to get a table of the latest balloon data from Oakland. To determine the depth of the marine layer, look at the temperature and the humidity beginning at sea-level. Look for a sharp drop in humidty and rise in temperature. The elevation of this transition is the top of the marine layer and will correspond to the tops of the fog. This elevation is fairly constant throughout the SF and Monterey Bay area. The highest accessible point in Bonny Doon is at 736m (2400 ft.), and other of our favorite nearby observing sites.
For our not-infrequent trips to the desert, here is the China Lake Naval Center's weather site.
My Planning Strategy
If there's an event or photo trip planned, I'll start with the satellite weather , especially the Central California page, to see if there's any storm-related weather coming in soon. If that's OK, I'll see what the fog pattern is on the satellite map. Does Bonny Doon, etc. poke above the fog tops, etc. If there's no fog, but there's a marine layer of damp cool air which may saturate when evening comes, I'll go to the balloon sounding site and find the elevation of the top of the marine layer. Then, I'll go to my list of local observing sites and find one which is above the marine layer and reasonably close.
