A cooler week is on tap with a stable beginning giving way to a return of showers and thunderstorms later this week into the weekend. A low pressure center near Washington State on Tuesday will bring sunny and seasonable weather, with just a few clouds moving in on Wednesday. The low drops down the coast and sets up off the southern California coast, which is a good overall pattern for mainly afternoon thunderstorm development, and that pattern will be fixed in place through the rest of the week.

Speaking of thunderstorms, Donna asks: “Can you explain to me the difference in “Isolated” Thunderstorms and “Scattered” Thunderstorms in the weather forecasts? I know what the 2 words mean but not how they apply to WHERE thunderstorms are expected to appear.”

Actually, neither implies where they might occur, it only implies how likely it is you will see one. Isolated means you have about a 10-20% chance of getting under one, whereas scattered means about 20-50% of the region will have a thunderstorm. In addition, scattered suggests there will be several groups of showers going on at the same time, whereas isolated showers tend to be loners, with no or few neighbors.