When I was in the Portland school system the first day of school was always after Labor Day. I still have papers from Lyseth Elementary that my parents wrote first paper and the dates are all during those early days of September, never August. Now, many schools begin the week before and since this year labor day is as early as it can fall, students are going to be heading back to school on the warmest day of the month and one of the top hottest of the entire summer. This isn’t to say this is very unusual for the end of August. Our temperatures the next two days while warm, won’t be near the records which are well into the 90s.
Humidity hasn’t been very high for an extended period of time this summer. I think the collective memory of this summer’s weather will be one of lots of sunshine, not too much heat and certainly not a lot of humidity. This is going to make today and tomorrow seem in some aspects warmer than it would have been in a more typical hot summer.
Up until this morning, Portland and much of coastal Maine haven’t reached 90F. If you look at averages, this isn’t terribly unusual, but by now we would have reached that milestone 2 or 3 times.
Portland has an outside shot they could see 90F tomorrow, but even if they don’t many of you will see your backyard thermometers inland reach that milestone. As I tweeted a couple of days ago, pack an extra juice box for the kids in their lunches.
Tomorrow, late in the day, a cold front will come through the area bringing a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. If you are thinking of heading to the beach, it’s going to be a wonderful beach day and similar to this afternoon. The only difference is that we have the risk of storms, but it’s small.
You can see on this morning’s visible satellite a line of clouds ahead of the cold front which will push through tomorrow. Notice how thin the line is, this is why any storms or showers we do see will be short lived and really not play a significant role in the forecast.
That said, some of the storms could become strong and while many of us won’t see them, if you do happen to get storm, it could be quite loud while it’s happening. I expect the threat of the showers to be over along much of the coast around 8PM and a few hours earlier back over the hills.
Thursday and Friday will be two wonderful days with similar weather to the much of the month of August. Low humidity and comfortable temperatures will make it tough to be at work or in school.
The weekend forecast isn’t clear cut at this point. Presently, Saturday looks like the driest of the three days with an increasing chance of showers and thunderstorms during Sunday afternoon and again Monday. The key to the forecast will be a slow moving front. This weather system, if it gets hung up in our area, could act as the catalyst for numerous showers, mostly during the afternoon. One thing that is going to happen later this weekend for sure is a return of more humidity. Throughout the holiday weekend it’s going to feel rather sticky and unfortunately sunshine may be at a premium. More on the Labor Day forecast in the coming days.
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