Today will mirror, almost exactly, our weather pattern on Wednesday. Morning clouds, mid-day sunshine, scattered afternoon thunderstorms...in that order. (That mid-day sunshine yesterday convinced me to take my mini dachshund out to the dog park for a little bit. It was nice and sunny but the ground was still soaking wet, which is a bit of a problem for a vertically challenged dog like Reeses. He had fun, sure...but I'll be picking grass, twigs, and other debris out of his fur until 2018.)
Clouds and fog are plentiful this morning as high dew points promote quickly saturating air at the lower levels. This cloud cover will be slow to burn off over the Midcoast and Downeast but improvement is coming rapidly to southern and central Maine. There is a dry slot of air across New Hampshire and eastern Vermont that should allow much of the state to see some sunshine from 11 am on. Unfortunately there is an upper level disturbance back there as well, so as the sun destabilizes the atmosphere look for a line of showers and thunderstorms to develop by 3-4 PM. This line will be broken in nature like Wednesday, so not everyone will get hit by a storm...but they'll be around through the early evening. High temperatures end up in the low 80s in most spots, which will feel plenty warm enough with dew points in the 65 F+ range.
Showers and thunderstorms will only survive until around 9 PM, after that look for partly cloudy skies. Once again there will be widespread fog as the temperature and dew point meet in the mid 60s.
The heat is on for Friday as the winds turn out of the southwest. A mixture of sun and clouds will be all that is needed to push most spots into the upper 80s by the afternoon, with low 90s across southwestern Maine. Keep in mind the dew point will remain near 70 F so it will be downright oppressive at times away from the coastline. A cold front is poised to move through and create some widespread thunderstorm activity, but it looks like the front will be slow moving and not arrive until the late afternoon/early evening. Thunderstorm activity, when it does enter Maine, will be much more widespread and generally stronger when compared to today's convection.
Saturday looks nice, real nice (I got it at Target, it's on sale) as a weak ridge of high pressure builds in for a limited time engagement. Look for mostly sunny skies over central and northern Maine with a more even 50/50 mixture of sun and clouds over southern Maine. Temperatures will remain warm, in the mid 80s for most with dew points continuing to run on the high side.
Sunday presents a tough forecast as Maine will be caught in an unstable flow ahead of an approaching front but the front itself will still be well west. The forecast COULD improve but right now let's call it mostly cloudy because I don't like the amount of instability around, especially considering our "juiced" humid atmosphere.
Showers and thunderstorms are likely on Monday, followed by drier, cooler weather for Tuesday/Wednesday.
I'm out.
Twitter: Don't worry, I won't tweet Olympic spoilers. @KeithCarsonWCSH