While we do have showers in the forecast tonight, Patriot’s Day 2016, and the running of the Boston Marathon to our south feature great weather. There have been all sorts of weather on this holiday in the past, from snow and rain to wind and cold and even some early season heat. Since Patriot’s Day floats a bit it’s harder to give all the weather that’s occurred on the holiday, but on April 18, 1992, there was 2 inches of snow in Portland! Mid-April can bring almost any type of weather you can think of to southern and central Maine.

High pressure is going to remain in control through the entire day and grace all of New England with blue skies and abundant sunshine. You will likely notice some high clouds filtering the sunshine, but temperatures will continue their rise throughout the early afternoon.  The warmest part of the day will occur before 1 p.m along the coast, after which a cooling sea breeze will push temperatures back into the 50s. Inland west of Gray, Gorham and Waterboro the effects of the ocean air won’t be as noticeable. This means warmer readings reaching the mid- to upper 60s.

The sun is very strong from now until Labor Day.  We are entering the period of the year with the greatest amount of daylight and the sun today is as strong as it would be on Aug. 23. This means you can get quite burned rather quickly.  Also, cars with windows closed can heat up very fast if you park in the sun.

Overall this is going to be a warmer than average week with temperatures reaching the 60s on Thursday and Friday.  Tuesday is the cool day this week with highs in the 50s along with some morning showers, but nothing extensive.  Since there will be more sunshine on Wednesday it will feel nicer even if actual air temperatures are similar to the day before.

The weekend may start with some showers and cooler air, but it looks seasonable overall and there will be times of sunshine to enjoy another April weekend.

I did get some questions about gardening this weekend.  It’s fine to plant cool weather crops like lettuce, kale, choy, onions and beets, but you definitely do not want to be planting warm weather things like beans, tomatoes and peppers.  We will have nearly a month to go before it’s safe putting those things in the ground.