With Earl lumbering away to the northeast, Ocean City and the Atlantic resorts seem to be headed for a fine Labor Day weekend after what could have been a bummer of a storm. But if anyone had been counting on Earl to spread a little needed moisture around before he departed, that now seems to have been a forlorn hope.

The rain gauges at Ocean City and Salisbury show only a few hundreths of an inch of rain this afternoon. The Patuxent Naval Air Station in Southern Maryland shows nothing in its bucket.

Western Maryland never had a chance to get a slice of Earl, and those folks are really hurting for rain. Parts of the region are in moderate to severe drought. Hagerstown  has seen barely 3 inches of rain since June 1, and only a fraction more than an inch since Aug. 1.

And forecasters say there is little but more dry weather ahead. As Earl pulls out, a cold front approaches tonight from the northwest, with little rain to offer. After the front moves past Central Maryland tonight, the air will dry out rapidly, and cool down. The pale skies out there Friday afternoon - part of the cloud shield that invaded with Earl - will clear as the air dries. Watch for the wind direction to swing around to the northwest.

Saturday and Sunday will be much cooler and drier than we've seen here in recent days, with blue skies and highs in the upper 70s Saturday and Sunday. Overnight lows early Sunday could dip to the 40s, and even the upper 30s in high elevations to our west.

But we're not done with the heat quite yet. Labor Day will be warmer, in the low 80s, but still dry - and delightful if you're not a potted plant. By Tuesday and Wednesday, however, we're likely to be revisiting the 90s, and breaking records daily for the most 90-degree days in one calendar year.

And there's no rain anywhere in the seven-day forecast out of Sterling.