Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Caribou, ME

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590 FXUS61 KCAR 231935 AFDCAR Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Caribou ME 335 PM EDT Thu May 23 2024 .SYNOPSIS...
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A cold front will cross the area tonight, followed by a secondary cold front on Friday. Weak high pressure builds in Saturday and Saturday night, then slowly exits to the east through Sunday night. A complex storm system slowly approaches from the west Monday and Tuesday.
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&& .NEAR TERM /THROUGH FRIDAY/...
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The large cold front associated with a large occlusion will exit the region by tonight, making for a mostly clear night. This evening will have decreasing and exiting showers and thunderstorms with the front. The 925mb temps indicate that the cooler airmass is further behind this front, more in conjunction with the occlusion expected to move through on Friday. Temps will be in the mid 50s across the area with light SW flow. By Friday, another boundary will move through the region as the occluded front swings across Quebec and into the state. For the morning, clouds will gradually start to increase with the boundary. The 925-850mb model temps show the temp gradient with the cold airmass moving into the region by late morning. Thus the warmest temps on the day will be at late morning, then decrease throughout the rest of the day. By the afternoon, showers will move across the north. Though models show instability for the north, the lack of sunshine and cooler temps could drive down the lift needed to produce thunderstorms. Decided to remove isolated thunderstorms from the forecast. However, cannot rule out a few rumbles after in the evening. WSW winds will increase with the pressure and temp gradient, making from a breezy day.
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&& .SHORT TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/...
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Northern stream ridging builds in Friday night and Saturday then exits Saturday night. Associated should keep things dry and also allow for minimal cloud cover Friday night and Saturday. Mid and high clouds should begin to build in Saturday night, especially after midnight. Lows Friday night should be a few degrees above normal, highs on Saturday, and lows Saturday night, should be near to a few degrees above normal. The global models (except CMC-Global) suggest that a northern stream shortwave should weaken the northern stream ridging enough to allow for a northern stream shortwave to bring some showers on Sunday. The high resolution models (plus CMC-Global) suggest that the northern stream shortwave ridging should be strong enough to shunt the bulk of the northern stream shortwave to the north, so the region should have little or no precipitation. Noting we are in a time of the year where convective processes dominate, leaned towards the high resolution models, which tend to handle convection better, so limited pops to slight chance. Highs on Sunday should be around 5 degrees above normal.
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&& .LONG TERM /SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY/...
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Deep layered northern stream ridging builds in Sunday night. Other than possibly some lingering showers from its preceding shortwave, it should be dry. Depending on how quickly the northern stream shortwave exits on Monday will determine how much, if any, showers impact the region on Monday. For now went with low end chance/high end slight chance pops - mainly for the afternoon. If confidence increases - it probably would be prudent to add in a chance for some thunder Monday afternoon/evening. A closed low tracks from SE Ontario into SW Quebec Monday night and Tuesday. Should see showers increasing in coverage late Monday night/Tuesday morning and continuing during the day. It appears there should be sufficient surface to low level instability to warrant at least a slight chance of thunder during the day on Tuesday. There currently is too much uncertainty in the details to offer a meaningful prediction on how strong any thunderstorms might or might not be on Tuesday. The global models all agree that a mean full latitude trough builds into the eastern US Tuesday night-Thursday. They differ though on the details of the timing of individual shortwave troughs and embedded shortwaves. This makes going with more than chance pops in this time frame difficult, as the timing of exactly when it will or will not rain requires those factors to be known. So for now, have gone with chance pops Tuesday night- Thursday, but please note it WILL NOT rain the entire time during this period, and more than likely not even half of this time frame. Once there is a better sense of the time frame of any precipitation, then some chances of thunder can be added to the forecast as appropriate. Temperatures should be near to slightly above normal Sunday night and Monday, then above formal Monday night, near normal Tuesday, above normal Tuesday night-Wednesday night, then near normal on Thursday.
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&& .AVIATION /18Z THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/...
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NEAR TERM: Mainly VFR conditions for tonight and Friday. For tonight, VFR conditions then possible MVFR for BHB in marine layer patchy fog. LLWS in FVE/CAR/PQI. SW winds 5-10 kts. For Friday, VFR with possible MVFR conditions for Aroostook Terminals in rain showers. WSW winds 5-15 kts. SHORT TERM: Friday night...VFR, except for possibly a period of MVFR at northern terminals. NW winds G15-20KT possible. Saturday-Sunday night...VFR. LLWS possible at southern terminals Sunday. Monday-Tuesday...MVFR or lower possible, with these conditions potentially developing late Monday and then continuing into Tuesday. SE winds G15-25KT and/or LLWS possible.
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&& .MARINE...
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NEAR TERM: Winds and seas will remain below SCA conditions for tonight and Friday. SHORT TERM: SCA conditions are possible on the coastal ocean waters Friday evening, otherwise sub-SCA conditions should be experienced on the waters Friday night-Monday night. SCA conditions are possible again on the waters on Tuesday.
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&& .CAR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ME...None. MARINE...None. && $$ Near Term...LaFlash Short Term...Maloit Long Term...Maloit Aviation...LaFlash/Maloit Marine...LaFlash/Maloit