The photo shot yesterday by NASA's Terra Earth Observing satellite shows just how brilliantly clear skies were yesterday over the Northeast. (Wish they skip superimposing the state borders every now and then, and let us see it the way astronauts do!) Here's a closer look.

But high clouds will start to slip in later today as the next cold front and low-pressure system begin to approach from the Great Lakes by early Saturday.

That system will draw warm, moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico, and bring it into collision with the cool air from the north and west, triggering areas of fog tonight and showers and thunderstorms by Saturday afternoon. Chance of precip tomorrow is 70 percent, slipping to 40 percent Saturday night.

Rain amounts are forecast to stick between a tenth- and a quarter-inch - not enough to push this May into the record books for total rainfall. Only a cloudburst over BWI would make up the inch-plus needed to break the 1989 record. But second-best is still pretty impressive:

May 1989: 8.71 inches

May 2008*: 7.52 inches

May 1894: 7.26 inches

May 1960:  7.10 inches

May 1886:  7.07 inches   

* Through 5/29

National Weather Service

Sunday looks sunny, as do Monday and Tuesday. More showers are expected by mid-week.

Image courtesy of the Space Science and Engineering Center, Univ. of Wisconsin