After a few beautiful, spring-like days, New England has reverted back to the region's "other" hallmark spring-like weather: mainly cloudy skies with scattered showers, cool and raw with a chilly breeze off the ocean. This comes as a frontal system pushes toward New England. This system will nudge the high pressure that's been in control of New England's weather this week to the east. This chilly flow off the ocean will lead to the cool, raw feeling compared to the past few days.
The good news is that this rather unsettled weather will be just that: unsettled. There won't be torrential downpours with flooding rains, there won't be heavy snow, ice and damaging winds bringing multi-day power outages. It'll just be some quick, spotty showers and cooler temperatures. The showers on Thursday will be largely scattered around for most. Vermont will see the most numerous showers, and the steadier showers during the day today. Amounts will generally remain at a quarter inch or less.
NAM showing expected weather mid-afternoon Thursday:
The exception to the cloudy, cooler weather will be across eastern Maine, where the ridge of high pressure is remaining around. Skies will be mainly sunny for much of that area with more mild temperatures. Eastern and northern Maine will be among the warmest places in the region today, with highs reaching into the upper 50s. Everyone else will be capped in the upper 40s to mid 50s, with the higher temperatures across interior areas of New Hampshire and Maine, away from the coastal influence.
This rather unsettled weather will stay with New England for the next few days, although even saying 'unsettled' may be overstating it a bit for some in the region. Friday will be mainly dry with brief ridging aloft. Skies will likely remain partly to mostly cloudy, but any showers will be very few and far between. Clouds will begin to thicken up in the afternoon to evening hours from west to east as a cold front approaches.
This front will bring another round of scattered showers to the region late Friday into Saturday. These showers will again be light and won't amount to much. The cold front looks to clear the region by Saturday evening. Drier air will be left in its wake, but spot showers can't be ruled out in the afternoon as the region remains under general cyclonic flow. Downeast Maine will likely see the most rain activity on Saturday, still mainly in the morning.
NAM showing expected weather overnight Friday to Saturday (1st image) and Saturday mid-morning (2nd image):
Winds will also become breezy post-front. Despite the cold front bringing slightly cooler temperatures aloft, the switch to a westerly flow will likely allow temperatures to bump up a few degrees Saturday afternoon at the surface, compared to Thursday and Friday. The exception to this will, again, be eastern Maine. With this area seeing less sun compared to Thursday and Friday, eastern Maine will be a notch cooler on Saturday.
Expected rainfall from now through Sunday morning:
Drier weather looks to move by Sunday as a weak ridge of high pressure looks to begin building back into the region. This could bring an elevated fire risk to New England amid dry, breezy weather with low relative humidity. This extent of the fire risk will be somewhat dependent on how much rain is able to get squeezed out on Friday to Saturday (which, again, doesn't look like much).
Once the cold front passes, flow looks to remain persistently out of the west. This should help keep sea breezes contained to the immediate coast and allow temperatures to remain in the mid 50s to mid 60s through the middle of next week. Right now, it looks like the next precipitation chance will come by the middle of next week.
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