A storm making its way up the East Coast is now expected to glance the bottom of the state, bringing rain to southern Maine and sending gusty winds and high surf up the coast this evening through Monday. 

“The southern half of Maine is just beyond the northern periphery of this big coastal low that everyone’s kind of been talking about,” said meteorologist Jerry Combs of the National Weather Service in Gray. 

Combs forecasted that most of the impacts of the coastal low will be on the coast of southern Maine with high winds. 

Reaching up from the New Hampshire coast to midcoast Maine, marine conditions will be impacted by gale warnings, with winds reaching 40 mph over the ocean from Sunday evening through Monday. A small craft advisory is in effect through Tuesday. 

Wind will come inland to the immediate coast, where residents could see wind gusts as high as 30-35 mph, forecasted Combs. The wind will also produce a high risk of rip currents at the beaches today, and a high surf advisory will go into effect Monday through Wednesday. 

In addition to high winds, the coastal low brings a chance of rain today and Monday, with southwest Maine forecasted to get 1-1.5 inches. The chances of precipitation will decrease farther north. 

While light showers could continue into Tuesday, the rest of the week is forecasted to be dry and mostly sunny, with high temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s and lows around 40 degrees. 

All of Maine is officially in drought conditions and extreme drought covers 30% of the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, but the rain isn’t going to help much, said Combs. 

“I think it’d be more like temporary relief. I think we would need several more inches of rain on top of this to actually start seeing improvements in the overall drought,” said Combs.