Shut down the stove, get our the AC, it just turned summer

GRAY, Maine - After a chilly spring the Northern Seacoast can look forward to what may be its first heat wave of the year: three days when highs could approach 90 though they may fall just short.

After Tuesday's appetizer with a high around 80 today through Friday could see highs of 90, 85 and 86, respectively, before falling back into the upper 70s on Saturday.

While it may not officially be tagged a heat wave - which is defined as being three days with temps of at least 90 - it'll be darn close.

A meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Gray said after a persistent patterns blocking in unseasonably cool temps, the reverse in now occurring with a warm pattern surging up from the Southwest.

"Now instead of a trough blocking in cold weather we have a ridge that comes up from the Southwest through Ohio and Appalachia that will put us in a very warm pattern," said meteorologist Maura Casey.

Accuweather forecasters noted that a storm system plaguing the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley with heavy thunderstorms will help to force warm and humid air northward from the Gulf of Mexico. A second atmospheric feature known as the "Bermuda High" will also help to bring warm and moist air northward.

Today's high could challenge local records, forecasters say, and the heat won't break till thunderstorms put an end to it on Friday and Saturday.

Casey said look for more a warmer than normal summer with more heat waves, too, shesaid. Early temperature models show a 68 percent chance of having warmer than normal temps for June through August.