This is good looking pattern we are launching into. This pattern is better looking than Pat Callaghan when he puts on his shiny shoes. This pattern is more attractive than Tom Brady and Gisele's super spawn could hope to be. THIS PATTERN is better looking than Jessica Alba's head on Jessica Biel's body. Ahem, well you get the point...it's going to be nice out for the next few days.
A big ridge of high pressure will build in for the next few days, protecting us from any advancing storm systems and bringing fair conditions to the state.
Rest of today: There is technically a cold front between us and the aforementioned nice pattern, but for most of Maine the impact of the front will be minimal. The boundary is visible on satellite just moving into western Maine as I type this, but it doesn't have much in the way of precipitation associated with it. That lack of widespread activity will be the trend as the front pushes to the southeast through the afternoon and early evening. Look for just some scattered showers and maybe a rumble of thunder, particularly over the mountains and foothills...the coastline will likely stay totally dry as the front dies out. For most of us the net result is a mostly sunny afternoon with a 10-15% chance of a late day shower. Highs will fall between 80-86 F.
Tonight: Isolated showers and thunderstorms will continue until around 10 PM, after that look for clearing. Skies will go from partly cloudy around midnight, to mostly clear by the early morning hours. It will be cool in spots (in the 40s in the mountains), but overall comfortable.
Friday-Saturday-Sunday: Being grouped together is a bad thing sometimes, but in the case of weather it can be a positive. All three of these days will be VERY similar so there isn't much point in repeating myself for day part forecasts. Look for mostly sunny skies, a late day sea breeze and high temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s. Overnight, temperatures will drop into the 50s in most locations with some 40s in the mountains along with patchy dense fog. (In the interest of full disclosure there is a VERY slight chance for a pop up afternoon shower in the mountains on Sunday, but it's likely in the 10-15% chance range).
Clouds increase by Monday afternoon and our next chance of rain will be some passing showers on Monday night.
Isaac: He's had a rough go of it developmentally over the past 24 hours with some decent wind shear (bad for hurricanes) in the vicinity and all indications are that he won't be able to restrengthen much before running into the D.R. and eventually Cuba. Those islands are notorious for shredding hurricanes so Isaac will likely remain below hurricane strength until Monday morning. Eventually he should emerge close to Florida as a minimal Cat. 1 hurricane. At that point the computer models begin to diverge as far as track. Florida certainly looks the most likely target for direct landfall. As for impact on Maine: tropical moisture looks to be the biggest threat. A few computer models advect the remnants of Isaac up the jetstream and to us by Thursday August 30th. That's still a while away though so I wouldn't worry about it given the computer model error at that range is somewhere between atrocious and embarrassing.