The sun has been up for hours as I start the Friday morning blog of Memorial Day weekend. These weekends are notorious for not being perfect. Late May is typically not a completely warm or dry time of year. The fact the weekend is coming somewhat early makes lowers the likelihood of an entirely warm weekend further. However, odds are not perfect and the upcoming holiday weekend will be better than most we see in southern Maine.

The overall pattern looks like this. A pool of chilly air will be with us tonight through tomorrow. This means clear skies and crisp temperatures, especially tonight. Sunday brings a warmer and sunny day, my pick for the weekend. Monday features warmer air to our south. The clouds from this air mass should hold off most of the day, although you could see some clouds during the second part of the day over southern areas.

Today
Skies are mainly clear and there is an abundance of sunshine is in the forecast. Highs will reach the 60s and along with low humidity this will be a very nice day to get outside. If you only have 30 minutes around noontime why not at least try to get a walk in? When I was in the corporate world, I use to eat lunch in my cube while I worked so I could take a walk during my official break.

Overnight
Some of you have been concerned about frost later tonight and early Saturday. While not impossible to see in isolated spots along the coast, for the most part any frost early Saturday will be confined to western and northern areas. Even without the frost it’s going to be cool so grab the extra blanket.

Saturday
It’s going to start cool tomorrow, but sunny. It’s not going to be day to lie in the sun at the beach, but it will be a great day to walk on the beach, garden, golf, play soccer, go for a run, clean the garage, bike, and hike or just read a book in a hammock. The chance of rain is zero.

Sunday
This is my pick of the weekend. The combination of sunshine and warmer air will make this the best day of the weekend. Highs will reach the 70s on interior areas, but hold around 70F at the coast. It will be very bright all day. Remember, the strength of the ultraviolet rays this time of year are thesame as the hottest part of the summer. The chance of rain is zero.

Memorial Day
The jury is still out a bit on Monday. I think the clouds will hold off the entire day, but if the warm front south of the area does move a bit further north we could see a cloudier afternoon. I’ll update this on Twitter @growingwisdom as things change over the weekend.

Next week
I’ve been forecasting a period of heat and humidity next week for several days. While we won’t reach 90F, I think there will be a swath of very warm readings from the Connecticut River Valley around Hartford up through western York and Cumberland Counties in Maine. It’s still a bit of a question how much of the warmth makes it this far north. This heat might be accompanied by a few showers, but right now any rain looks very light as much of the area is poised to have one the driest months of May on record.

Have a great weekend.

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