Well in the wake of the quake (lame, I know), we've had two fantastic fall days. (By the way, if I hear one more "I was doing the following when the earthquake hit" story I'm going to cry. I get it, it felt like a truck about to hit the house, stuff rattled, you texted 1,500 people, and your dog...well your dog didn't like it one bit). The rest of today will ride out on a good note, but we've got some serious changes on the way for Friday and into the weekend.
Today: Mostly sunny and pleasant for the remainder of the day. High pressure is still in control from yesterday so sunshine will be plentiful and temperatures will push into the low 60s over southern Maine while staying in the upper 50s to the north.
Tonight: Clouds increase from south to north, such that the majority of the state will be mostly cloudy by the early morning. Temperatures will drop into the low 40s to west while staying closer to 50 along the coastline.
Friday: As a warm front approaches the state look for rain to break out from southwest to northeast. It should be relatively light at first, mainly just some scattered showers and drizzle through the first half of the day, but it will transition into a more steady rain by the afternoon. In between the showers look for mostly cloudy conditions with very little in the way of sunshine. Despite the lack of sun temperatures will stay relatively mild, in the low 60s, due to a warm airmass accompanying the front.
The rain looks to really pick up on Friday night with heavy downpours. This looks like a classic "firehose" situation that develops in Maine when a frontal boundary moves very slowly up the coastline. What I mean by firehose is that a small swath of heavy rain will setup with bands of moisture coming off the Gulf of Maine; it will be oriented in a southeast to northwest direction giving the look of a firehose slowly moving up the coastline. It looks like the heaviest rain will be over southern Maine around midnight and then spreading to Downeast by the morning on Saturday.
Saturday: As I just mentioned the heaviest rain will be over Downeast and northern Midcoast Maine by Saturday morning. Downpours and heavy rain will start your weekend there. To the south look for cloudy conditions with scattered showers. Nothing super heavy, but still precipitation around through at least noon. By the afternoon southern and central Maine will begin to clear out with some peeks of sunshine (just peeks, not the whole things...my mother raise my better), meanwhile showers will continue over northern and Downeast Maine straight until sunset.
Sunday: Conditions will improve for the second half of the weekend as the front moves on out of the state. The coastline should end up with a pleasant mixture of sun and clouds with a strong wind out of the west/northwest. Meanwhile the mountains could see some lingering clouds and showers as the upper level low associated with Saturday's rain spins over Canada. Any showers should be light and brief, but I think I have to leave in the chance due to the proximity of the low. Why will it be nicer along the coastline? Downsloping winds FTW! These winds will warm and dry out the air as it heads downhill from the mountains to the lower terrain of the coastline. High temperatures will stay in the low 60s.
At this point next week looks pretty decent. I see a few ridges of high pressure lined up to the west and that should bring us some sunshine.
Ok, I'm out of here!