Friday morning starts with rain and/or rain showers over southern areas of the Island. As of 6:41 AM, the heaviest rain is over southern Avalon Peninsula. The rain is moving from west to east and should be over most areas that see it by 10 AM. That being said, there will be some pop-up showers later today over parts of the west and southwest coast.

The weather across the Province today will generally be tranquil and will feature various amounts of cloud cover depending on location. Areas of southern and eastern Newfoundland will see the most clouds, while areas of central and western Newfoundland, the Great Northern Peninsula, and the bulk of Labrador will see mostly sunny to sunny skies.

Friday will also be a day when temperatures on the Avalon vary widely. Right along the coast, readings will be in the teens, but inland, upper teens to lower 20s will be the rule this afternoon, particularly if the sun comes out in a large capacity.

FIRE DANGER IN THE BIG LAND TODAY

Labrador (as seen above) will experience a hot day, with highs in the 20s to near 30. It will also be dry and breezy, with wind gusts to 60 km/h. Combining those three elements will lead to conditions for the explosive growth of wildfires. The images below show the fire danger for the Big Land today. Notice that it’s Extreme or red in many areas.

There are currently 13 wildfires burning through the Big Land, many of which are small, as denoted by the icon. I suspect many of these fires are going to grow in size today and that the smoke from them will be clearly visible on satellite imagery later today.

If you know there is a fire burning near your area, it is very important to pay attention to the smoke, and keep updated on the latest on the fires from your local government officials. While most of the fires do seem to be burning in remote areas, some are closer than I’d like to see to populated areas.

Beyond today, the weather looks pretty quiet as we head into the weekend, with no major weather makers in play for the next few days. We will see a return to the heat across the Island as we move into next week. Temperatures in the Big Land will remain a bit more moderate after today.