This time of the year, the difference between summer warmth and humidity and springtime clouds and showers can be just a few miles apart and a quick wind shift away.  Over the next few days that dividing line is going to waffle north and south through New England providing a variety of weather from Maine to Connecticut. 

I’ll be updating the forecast throughout the week on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

Today we are still on the “cool” side of the front with not much humidity. A gentle wind off the water will keep coastal locations from Saco to Brunswick in the upper 50s and lower 60s this afternoon.   There will be plenty of sunshine although clouds increase in the afternoon.

Overnight, as a front moves to our north, showers will cross the area.  Tomorrow you will notice more humidity in the air and it will feel a bit like summer.  It’s not going to be hot, but the moisture in the air will make it feel sticky.

We desperately need rain.   The amount of rain that is going to fall over the next 4 or 5 days is somewhat in question and dependent on the exact placement of the boundary between the cool and warm air.

It looks like there will be two or three rounds of showers between now and Friday.  When we arrive at next weekend many towns will have seen about a half to an inch of rain.    In these situations rainfall can vary a bit so you still might have to water on your own.  The best day of weather, after today, will be Tuesday when drier air works in from the north.
 
On Tuesday, that same front that brings tonight’s showers is going to do a 180° and move back towards Connecticut.  This will allow cooler and drier air to flow back into the area.  This means that the chance of any rain is greatly diminished with the ocean air.  It also means a return to some sunshine after a rather cloudy Monday.
On Wednesday the warm air will attempt to flow back into Maine and humidity levels will increase.  There will be widely scattered showers, but much of the day, especially the morning, will be dry.   Temperatures will reach the 60s much of the week with the largest fluctuations in how it feels do to the humidity and not the actual temperature.

The main thrust of warm and humid air should stay south of the area.  This will leave us in an unsettled pattern for the balance of the week.
Thursday could be an interesting day for some severe weather over western Maine.  You might have noticed all the thunderstorms and tornadoes over the Midwest the past couple of days.  Eventually, some of that energy will move eastward and could spark a line of thunderstorms for later Thursday.  I am not forecasting anything remotely as severe as what they are seeing in the center of the country.

Next weekend is already Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial, but somewhat official kickoff to summer.  Three day weekends are tough to make a forecast this far out, but right now, the start of the weekend looks dry and seasonable to slightly cool.   I don’t see the weekend turning into a hot one with great weather for the beach, but it’s early for that at this point anyway.
 

 

 

 

 

Gardening this week Japanese maple trees are one of the best ornamental trees you can put in your yard. I have a total of about a dozen scattered everywhere from the front of the house to the back. Check out some of the best varieties in this week’s video.