It's not the heat it's the hu...
Nope. Scratch that...it's the heat.
Portland officially hit 90 F last hour and in the process joined a few other spots in the state roasting in "heat wave" territory. (You need 3 days of 90 + in a row to have a legit heat wave. I don't think we will QUITE ((Sunday might come in short)get there in Portland, but it is a lock for interior locations)
The heat will continue through the afternoon with mostly sunny skies. In fact the satellite picture is totally clean in all but FAR northern Maine (up towards Caribou) where a few clouds and showers are roaming around. There will be a sea breeze developing later this afternoon but it's a "day late and buck short" so to speak since temperatures pushed into the low 90s in many spots along the immediate shore. That's going to be a theme over the weekend as well: the westerly gradient wind won't be strong enough to prevent a sea breeze, but the breeze will develop so late as to have minimal impact on high temperatures.
Tonight will be a clear and mild evening with temperatures staying in the 70s for most of the night, and eventually bottoming out in the 60-65 range by the early morning.
Saturday looks brutally hot. A building hot air mass will push most spots into the low 90s with even some mid 90s possible by the afternoon. Humidity will be on the rise as well, so the heat index will easily top 100 F. I foresee a lot of sunshine for most of the state with just an isolated chance for a pop up afternoon thunderstorm. I mentioned before that in an airmass THIS hot/humid you'd need a ridge of high pressure directly overhead to totally eliminate the chance of pop up convection...and we don't have that. Still, I'm thinking the chances of a thunderstorm fall in the 10% range.
Sunday will still be hot but not quite as bad. Look for high temperatures in the upper 80s in most spots. The slight "downgrade" in temperatures will be due to increase cloud cover from a weak upper level disturbance moving through. That disturbance could crop up a few late day showers and thunderstorms as well, but again it doesn't look likely.
Still hot, still a chance of isolated afternoon storms on Monday.
Totally sunny and back into the 90s for Tuesday.
Relief comes in the form of a strong cold front swinging through Wednesday night. Whenever a boundary is separating such strong air masses there is a good chance for severe thunderstorms as it moves through. I'll keep on eye on this potential as we get closer. Either way it looks MUCH cooler and drier by Thursday.
Heat side note: Is it too much to ask that thermometer in my one year old car be within 10 F of the actual temperature. I mean, I get it, I'm the uber nerd who notes the exact temperature and compares it to the dashboard...but come on. Not only does this level of inaccuracy annoy the weather weenie that lurks within, it also leads to viewers posting pictures on Facebook of "The 104 F day in Maine."