054 FXUS61 KGYX 280755 AFDGYX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Gray ME 355 AM EDT Sun Apr 28 2024 .SYNOPSIS... A warm front will bring scattered showers today into tonight with temperatures warming into Monday. A back door cold front moves through Monday night which will cool things down for Tuesday. Low pressure develops along this front to our south, and brings another round of showers Tuesday night. Wednesday remains cool with some clearing in the afternoon. Warmer high pressure will build in for the end of the week. && .NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 PM THIS EVENING/... Latest RAP13 surface pressure analysis this morning shows high pressure located to our south and east with New England sitting on the northern edge of an h5 ridge axis. Nighttime microphysics satellite imagery shows a band of clouds moving from west to east in association with a weak vorticity maximum that is crossing ahead of a sfc warm front that is approaching from the west. Latest hi-res guidance indicates this initial band of light showers will continue to drift east through around 6am before mostly dissipating as it encounters dry air over western ME and the forcing for ascent weakens. Current temperatures are primarily into the 40s and other than another degree or two of cooling from wet bulbing, lows will not differ much from their current readings. Another band of showers are progged to arrive towards the Upper CT River Valley within an hour either side of 8AM before quickly dropping south and weakening over western ME and exiting the coastline by late morning. Otherwise, today will feature partly to mostly cloudy skies and increasing humidity as a warm front crosses the region. This will place our region within the warm sector with h925 temperatures warming to around +14C, which will be around our maximum mixing heights for today. This will allow interior locations to warm into the middle to upper 60s with lower 70s over southern and western NH. Cooler readings into the 50s to near 60 will be common closer to the coast due to southerly onshore flow. Latest mesoscale guidance suggests some decent destabilization will occur over portions of interior NH this afternoon, particularly towards the CT River Valley. The combination of sfc temperatures into the lower 70s and increasing moisture advection pushing sfc dewpoints well into the 50s could allow for several hundred joules of MUCAPE to develop. This in combination with around 50 kts of 0-6km bulk shear and decent lapse rates could result in an isolated thunderstorm during the afternoon and early evening. As a result, went ahead and added some thunder mentioning to just these areas for a few hours later today. While severe weather is not expected, a localized gusty storm cannot be ruled out. Whatever convection does occur will quickly weaken as it moves towards the coast and encounters the marine airmass but any location will be at play for a shower. && .SHORT TERM /6 PM THIS EVENING THROUGH 6 PM MONDAY/... Surface cold front will cross tonight, bringing an end to the shower activity as drier air advects back into the region under northwest flow. Lows will range from the 40s to middle 50s from north to south. Surface high pressure and mid-level ridging will then build over New England on Monday, resulting in a mainly sunny and very warm day despite northerly winds. Highs will range from the middle 70s in interior southern NH to the middle and upper 60s elsewhere. Even coastal locations should warm well into the 60s as the northerly winds will help to fight off a sea breeze. Speaking of winds, deep afternoon mixing will allow gusts to approach around 25 mph at times. This in combination with low afternoon RH into the teens to lower 20s percent range could result in some fire weather concerns. It will otherwise be a beautiful day. && .LONG TERM /MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/... 500 MB pattern across NOAM is highlighted, for the most part, by a double omega block with ridging be the dominant player across the E CONUS. Early on, the proximity to the closed low S of Nova Scotia will bring us either NE or onshore flow, which will not let us benefit much from the warm air aloft, but later in the week the flow at the sfc and aloft will be more W-SW and allow for warmer air to mix down to the sfc, with mainly dry conditions. After this models projecting 500 MB low to our NW to crash into the ridge which brings the threat of showers for next weekend. Tuesday looks partly sunny but cooler. Especially in the eastern zones and along the coast where highs will be in the low to mid 50s. Inland areas nay get closer to 60 with the warmest being in the CT valley where highs will be 60 65. It should be mainly sunny by morning with clouds increasing from the SW later in the day. Weak low pressure then develops along the cold front that sits just to our S, and this will bring a threat showers to the area Tue night. These showers may end up being more convective and scattered, and mins will generally be in the low to mid 40s. Once the low passes, it leave the mid level front sitting over the CWA, and this will make for more clearing to the N and E by afternoon, and more clouds to the SW on the warm side of the front. Maxes will mostly be in the 55-60 range, but again the CT vly will likely be 60-65. At this point it looks like Thu-Fri stay dry and warm, especially inland with highs in the mid to upper in the eastern ME zone and 70-75 across all but coastal NH and interior SW ME. The coast will be the coolest with highs in 60-65 range. Friday looks similar, although with more clouds. The weekend we start to see the ridging being overtaken by a 500 MB closed low to the W, but today this is happening 24 hours later than yesterdays model runs, so this is low confidence, as models tend to break the ridge Atlantic ridging too soon, although its always tough to tell in the spring. && .AVIATION /08Z SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/... Short Term...Pockets of MVFR restrictions will remain possible through mid-day along with scattered -SHRA. An isolated -TSRA is possible between roughly 19Z-23Z, especially at KHIE and KLEB. Southerly winds will prevail through 00Z Sunday with a few gusts nearing 15 kts. Winds will become northwesterly behind a cold front tonight as scattered -SHRA ends. Pockets of MVFR restrictions are possible (mainly at KHIE) but otherwise VFR will dominate. VFR conditions and gusty northerly winds are then expected on Monday with gusts up to 20 kts. No LLWS is expected through the period. Long Term...Some MVFR possible in SHRA and maybe some fog Tue night, which may linger into Wed morning, especially at KPSM/KMHT/KCON. VFR returns Wed afternoon and should prevail through Thursday at least. && .MARINE... Short Term...A few southerly wind gusts could approach 25 kts today over the outer waters but otherwise winds and seas will remain below SCA criteria. Winds will become northerly on Monday behind a cold front. Long Term...Winds/seas stay below SCA criteria Mon night through Thu. && .GYX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ME...None. NH...None. MARINE...None. && $$ NEAR TERM...Tubbs SHORT TERM...Tubbs LONG TERM...Cempa