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Photography Weather Forecast for Big Sur, California Coast

Big Sur, California, United States

Big Sur’s Santa Lucia Mountains descend directly into the Pacific, creating stacked headlands, sea cliffs, coves, and surf beneath changing marine fog.

13 matching opportunities in the 14-day forecast.

Active Forecasts

0 of 4 forecast rules match now.

Upcoming Opportunities

When all conditions match, PhotoWeather marks an opportunity window.

Times shown in America/Los_Angeles
golden-hour weather icon
First upcoming window
Exceptional Golden Hour at Sunset
Big Sur
Wed, Oct 7 · 18:08–18:58 · 1h window
Medium confidence
68%
🌇Golden Hour Potential86.1%
Low Cloud Cover: 1%
Mid Cloud Cover: 0%
High Cloud Cover: 0%
Sun Elevation: 7.6° (Daylight)
golden-hour weather icon
Excellent Golden Hour at Sunset
Big Sur
Thu, Oct 8 · 18:06–18:56
🌇Golden Hour Potential:81%
Medium
golden-hour weather icon
Exceptional Golden Hour (calm) at Sunset
Big Sur
Fri, Oct 9 · 18:05–18:55
🌇Golden Hour Potential:89%
Medium
fire-sky weather icon
Excellent Fiery Red Sky at Sunrise
Big Sur
Sun, Oct 11 · 07:00–07:44
🔥Fiery Red Sky Potential:84.1%
Low
golden-clouds weather icon
Excellent Painted Sky at Sunrise
Big Sur
Tue, Oct 13 · 07:00–07:46
🌤️Painted Sky Potential:81%
Low
golden-hour weather icon
Exceptional Golden Hour at Sunset
Big Sur
Tue, Oct 13 · 18:00–18:49
🌇Golden Hour Potential:100%
Low
golden-hour weather icon
Exceptional Golden Hour at Sunset
Big Sur
Wed, Oct 14 · 17:58–18:48
🌇Golden Hour Potential:87.6-96.6%
Low
+6 more windows in the next 14 days

How this forecast is made

Opportunities are threshold-based signals: PhotoWeather checks whether forecast conditions match the rules for a photography scenario. They are planning guidance, not guarantees. Forecasts can change as new model runs arrive, and confidence generally decreases farther into the forecast horizon, so recheck conditions before travelling.

The weather forecast foundation comes through Open-Meteo , which aggregates models from weather agencies. PhotoWeather applies condition-specific thresholds and derived calculations; not every condition uses every model or data input.

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