I decided to come inside and write a blog because even though the humidity isn’t oppressive, the 90 degree heat was getting to me. Back in 1945, the mercury rose to a stifling 95 degrees in Maine’s largest city for one of the hottest temperature in the record books during the month of September. The Jetport recorded 90 degrees this afternoon.

Typically, our highs would be in the 70s closing out the first week of September, during a cool year we might stay in the 60s while other warmer years would reach the 80s. Today marks only the 4th time since records began in Portland we have reached 90 degrees on September 7th.

Having already eclipsed the 90 mark, there is an outside chance we could do the same thing Tuesday and Wednesday for an official heat wave. Remember, heat waves are 3 days or more in a row when the high temperature reaches at least 90 degrees. Tomorrow is even hotter and as the humidity slowly climbs the heat indices could get into the mid-90s for a few hours.

The map below shows highs in the 90s tomorrow over southern Maine. This would be the 6th time Portland has reached 90 on the 8th of September. The record for tomorrow is 93 and there is a chance would could tie that record.

Will There Be Showers For Patriots?
The heat, but not the humidity will break on Thursday as highs remain in the 80s. For the Patriots home opener there is the chance for some showers, but it does appear most of them will stay to the west of Foxborough until after the game is over. If the front speeds up a bit then there could be some showers, but it won’t be cool at all. The map below indicates much of Maine will see some rain during the Thursday to early Friday time period.

Eventually a cold front will cross Maine and pushes the humidity out to sea. I would estimate Thursday afternoon and early Friday is the transitional period between the humidity and the dry air. This means next weekend is looking rather pleasant with seasonably warm temperatures.

The final map I want to show you looks at temperatures today through the third week of October, a 45 day period. It gives the predicted average anomaly of temperature. An anomaly means how much above or below the average something is. This February for example, we had our largest negative anomaly for temperatures in most areas. For the early fall, the map clearly shows above average temperatures across the northeast corner of the country.

While this doesn’t mean there won’t be any cold air during this period, if it verifies, it means a very warm rest of this month and much of next.

Tropical Weather
Tropical storm Grace is out at sea moving west. The reason you probably haven’t heard very much about this storm is that it is forecast to weaken as it moves closer the Caribbean. El Nino years are typically low activity ones for Atlantic storms and this year is so far proving this to be the case.

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