About this Blog

Subscribe to
The Maine Forecast RSS

About the Author

David Epstein has been a meteorologist for more than 25 years. He spent 16 years in Boston and currently freelances at WGME13 in Portland.

In 2006, David founded GrowingWisdom.com, a business producing educational and marketing videos for the green industry. He currently is a professor at Framingham State College, teaches Jan Plan at Colby College and owns Bloomscapes Inc., a landscape design business.

David authored "Gardens Of New England" and his work has been published in Grolier's Science Annual for 10 years. He lives in South Natick, Mass., and has a summer home in Harpswell.

Subscribe to
The Maine Forecast RSS

Previous entries

No, that isn’t a typo in the headline this morning.  There are no watches, no warnings, no thunder and no raindrops for Maine for the next few days.  Finally, a stretch of dry weather is here.   Our wet June pattern is going to quickly transition into a more typical summertime pattern when those showers we do get are scattered and not accompanied by torrents of rain.

I'll be updating the details of the weekend forecast on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

High pressure, the good guy of the weather world is now taking control and will keep us dry the rest of the week.  Highs generally have a cool and warm side and we will be on the cool side of the high into the start of the weekend before moving to the warmer side of the high during the weekend.

 When I say “cool side” it does depend on the season as to what cool means.  This time of the year cool temperatures will be in the 70s during the day and 50s at night (next three days)  while the other side of the pressure system allows readings to reach at least the lower 80s during the day and stay at 60F or higher at night (the weekend and early next week).  

It was a wild afternoon and evening for parts of the area with vivid lightning, hail, torrential rain and damaging winds.  There was no major damage to report from the storms, but my dogs certainly were not thrilled.   This morning we find areas of clouds, but also some sunny breaks.   While the radar is not showing any precipitation around Maine now, there are two lines of showers back through New York.  This area is associated with more atmospheric energy that crosses through later today.  

I am keeping showers and  perhaps a weak thunderstorm in the  forecast for this afternoon,but I am not expecting anything as widespread as yesterday. 

There are several things that are different in the atmosphere from yesterday so while some storms could become strong to our south, a widespread outbreak of severe weather isn’t likely.  The best chance for any thunder  will be over southern areas of Maine and points south.  

When trying to forecast what type of storms will form during the afternoon we have to look at how the air will behave on its way skyward in building the storms.   There isn’t much in weather that is a constant, but we can say that all storms have some lift associated with them.  Lift is the mechanism to push the air up and build the storms.  Sometimes the lift comes from a front, like today, when cold air is going to push warm air at the ground high into the atmosphere to form

 Happy Father’s Day!  This morning will end up being the best part of the day as clouds increase and sunshine fades.   A frontal system is going to pass through the area late today and with it comes the chance for showers.  Dry conditions overall will continue through the morning with the chance of showers increasing after 4 PM.   Temperatures will peak early this afternoon before falling back as the clouds thicken.

I'll be updating the details of the showers on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

Any showers we see will end overnight.  This morning was quite chilly with Berlin, NH falling to 37F.  Many other communities recorded readings in the 40s. Tomorrow morning won’t be as chilly.  By morning temperatures will be in the 50s under partly cloudy skies.  Monday dawns partly to mostly and continues that way all day.  There is a renewed chance of showers in the afternoon and evening, but like today, many of us will stay dry.

 You will notice a bit of humidity in the air Monday as dew points, a measure of moisture in the air, creep upward.  This isn’t going to be a long lasting or particularly intense bout of sticky conditions, just a change from the dry air of the past couple of days.  I am forecasting highest temperatures between 74F and 78F around 3PM. As a new weather system tries to cross through the area Tuesday showers continue in the forecast.  Tuesday has the best chance of showers this week, but even that day isn’t a washout and there will be sunshine.   Model data is a bit conflicted for how fast weather moves along on Tuesday.  The Euro is going with a slower moving system and keeping clouds and the chance for showers going much of the day.  I tend to favor the European’s slower solution to Tuesday’s weather.  Humidity will be high in the morning before falling back to drier levels in the evening and overnight.  Highs on Tuesday reach the upper 70s in spite of the lack of full sunshine. The rest of the week is looking mighty fine.  There will be sunshine and highs reaching the 70s.  Nights will be comfortably cool for sleeping.   The reason for this patterns is the jet stream  is remaining positioned in such a way as to keep any heat and humidity away from New England.  During the summer air that comes from the northwest provides us with some of the most comfortable conditions.   Because there are no large bodies of water in Canada air in that region doesn’t contain much moisture.  We call this continental polar air (cP).  You can contrast cP air with maritime tropical air (mT).  That is the sticky warm stuff many of us don’t like.  There are two other basic types of air masses affecting the lower 48 and these are continental tropical (cT) or dry warm air and maritime polar (mP) cool moist air.   Most of our weather is caused by these air masses each fighting for domination and bumping into one another. Astronomical summer begins later this week which means the longest day of the year is upon us.  I put a chart for sunrise and sunset below.  As you can see we will still gain a tiny bit of time this week, but this weekend we lose a few seconds of time, don’t worry you won’t notice it just yet. 

Gardening this week With all the rain this month your soil might be water logged. Raised beds are a great way to grow flowers, vegetables, even trees and shrubs when you have limited space or need to create a new growing area. In the following video watch how we create a raised bed for a suburban homeowner. You could do the same thing anywhere by just changing the scale to fit your needs.

Happy Flag Day.  Mid-June is usually much better than this.   Another nor'easter is now pushing east and the rain over extreme southern Maine will taper off this morning.   If you are around York, Kittery, and up to about Kennebunk there can be some heavier showers early today.  The trend will be for improvement this afternoon with some sunshine returning.  I can't rule out another pop-up shower or thunderstorm after 3 p.m. today as the air remains unstable.

This morning, a storm is located just east of Cape Cod.  If this had been winter, which it feels like in my house today, southern New England would have seen as much as 2 feet of snow in places from this type of setup. Here in Maine we would have mostly missed the storm.  Our pattern from February and early March really hasn't stopped, it just took a break in April.

The radar loop below shows heavy rain pivoting through York County.  This area must move through before we can begin the process of drying out.   The real heavy rain remains across southern New England and will not move northward.

After a wet morning, the rain is now exiting southern Maine.  Our break in the wet weather will be brief and I am reminded of the saying “be careful what you wish for”.  The saying is stuck in my head as I think back to the first week of May after 4 weeks of little rain.  Since that time we have had well above average amounts of rain and more is on the way, definitely too much of a good thing.

I'll be updating the details of the rain on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

A wet June isn’t fun.  This is the month that summer is supposed to begin.   So far this June many areas have had over 3 inches of rain and the month isn’t half over yet. One of the farms I drive past in the morning has several of its rows sitting in water.  You might not remember, but last June was also wet with Portland seeing over 7 inches of rain. The cause of this round of rainy weather is the same thing that prevented the rain in early spring, the jet stream.  The jet stream controls the movement of air masses and the weather associated with them.  Since mid-May the jet stream has been very active near New England.    Remember, April was not only dry here, there was very little tornado activity elsewhere.  With the jet stream becoming more active last month, the frequency of severe weather increased as did our rain events. Below is a loop that shows the winds at around 30,000 feet for the next 10 days.   If you look at the flow you can see that the dips continually move through New England.   This means we will continue to have days that rain, some it heavy, are an issue.   Our next round of rain arrives tomorrow and continues Thursday night.  In simplistic terms, we have another nor’easter that will give us heavy rain.  The rain will be quite heavy Thursday night and another 1 to 2 inches could fall.  On Friday the rain ends early in the morning and skies can brighten in the afternoon.   Temperatures remain cool only in the 60s tomorrow and upper 50s and lower 60s Friday, this is far below what we would expect in mid-June. An area of dry weather will arrive for the weekend and with the strong sunshine temperatures return to more typical readings.  On Saturday highs will reach the lower 70s and could nudge 80F on Sunday.  I am not expecting any chance of rain and there will be mostly clear skies both days.  Low amounts of humidity in the air mean that the nights will be comfortable for sleeping as well.  Although the weekend weather looks great, this doesn’t mean the pattern has changed.  During next week I expect several more chances of rain, some it heavy and humidity levels are going to increase.  This means more opportunities for possible flooding and not many chances for things to dry out. Patterns like this will break, but how much longer we have to go through it is a bit of a mystery.  I do have access to the European model and what is called the monthly control.  This model gives a daily forecast for the next 30 days.  What I see it showing into early July is a continued wet and cooler than normal pattern.  This doesn’t mean 30 days of rain, but any heat we get doesn’t look like it will last very long. 

Gardening this week With all the rain this month your soil might be water logged. Raised beds are a great way to grow flowers, vegetables, even trees and shrubs when you have limited space or need to create a new growing area. In the following video watch how we create a raised bed for a suburban homeowner. You could do the same thing anywhere by just changing the scale to fit your needs.

I'll be updating the details of the rain on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

older >