The showers of earlier this morning have not pushed off the coast. While there could be a sprinkle or light shower the rest of the day, we are basically looking at a cool, cloudy day with a persistent northeasterly flow off the water.

This pattern will continue through Friday, but then a change in the upper level winds will begin to bring warmer air into southern and central Maine and many spots will reach above 70F by early next week.

Upper level lows can often become stuck in place in spring. This means the weather also becomes rather stagnant. The past week has seen many days of clouds, cool air and on and off showers. We haven’t had a lot of rain, but we also haven’t seen many completely dry days for the past 10 of them.

The image below shows the clouds locked in place across much of Maine. If you look, you can see the way the clouds are swirling around. Even though the image isn’t moving, there is definitely the impression of movement on the picture.

The radar loop from earlier also shows how the flow air is coming from the northeast. Notice the showers moving down the coastline. Earlier these showers went through Brunswick and Portland on their way out to sea.

As the easterly flow leaves the area our temperatures will rise each afternoon and become warmer than average later this weekend. If you have not gotten a chance to get outside much this spring, the weekend is looking favorable for all mid-spring outdoor activities.

High temperatures on Monday could easily reach the 60s away from the coast and the magical 70F mark is likely well inland. Tuesday brings the opportunity for a few showers as a front crosses the area. Unlike this week, this system will keep on moving and the air behind it isn’t very chilly.

I am expecting temperatures to continue on the mild side much of next week. With this in mind, you could continue to plant cool weather vegetables. I would not recommend putting out things like tomatoes, peppers, basil or eggplant for another 3 weeks. Even if we don’t see another frost this season, the nights are likely going to be cool enough to promote problems on the more sensitive plants we grow as annuals.

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