Well, we didn't win the Yarmouth Clam Shucking contest. In fact, we came in 3rd out of 5 teams; not impressive. HOWEVER we were a lock for "Team Most Likely to Draw Their Own Blood"and "Team Member with Tightest Smedium Polo Shirt"...so that was nice. (Also of note: I have no doubt WMTW practices for this event on a daily basis. So who REALLY wins?)
Moving right along.
High pressure continues to dominate our weather today but not in the same way it did on Saturday. The ridge has pushed offshore a bit, turning winds out of the southwest. This has allowed some humidity to creep into Maine and with that humidity will come an increase in cloud cover and some isolated showers. That being said, most of the state will remain dry today. (I've included a shaded percentage map to give you a feel for precipitation. It is under "Extra" on our webpage.) The best chance of shower activity will be in the mountains and into New Hampshire where the higher elevation pushes the air up enough to produce larger clouds. Those showers won't be able to make it "downhill" all the way to the coastline so expect dry weather there. Outside of that small shower threat, look for an even mixture of sun and clouds and temperatures in the low to mid 80s.
Left over showers will continue over the mountains early this evening before most of us are quiet between 10 PM and 4 AM. At around 4 AM there will be a chance of light showers over southern and central Maine. Nothing big, but if you are an early riser you might see a few drops.
Monday is a three part kind of day. Morning-Early sprinkle, good deal of clouds Noon-Mostly sunny and humid. Afternoon-Widespread showers and thunderstorms develop. Unlike today the precipitation on Monday won't be confined to the mountains, instead an upper level disturbance means most of us will catch at least one shower or thunderstorm. Temperatures will top out in the low 80s with high humidity.
A strong cold front will push through on Tuesday so some of the thunderstorms that develop on Tuesday afternoon could be strong to severe. As we saw with the last frontal passage, timing is everything. If the front comes through too early, the sunshine won't get to destabilize the atmosphere enough to create severe thunderstorms. My feeling on this front is that it WILL be timed well for severe weather, so stick with us on this.
After the front pushes offshore look for sunny, cooler and dry weather for Wednesday and Thursday. A classic post cold front "reset".
There's a decent rain storm being depicted on SOME models for Friday but other models sail it to our south. Right now I'm going to split the middle and put a chance of showers but my gut is that the bulk of it will miss Maine.
By the way, my plan for next years Clam Festival contest? Trash talk. If I can get in WMTW's head we've got a chance. I'll stoop as low as necessary. I'll probably start with something about how lame it is that they practice, then move onto the possibility of cutting of fingers with one wrong move and, if needed, resort to Anchorman style ratings insults.