MEXICO – Break out the Beach Boys music. The rain is gone and spring is sprung, finally. Enjoy the weekend but, wait, it gets better. Some areas of Western Maine will see temperatures in the 70s on Monday, National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Mansfield said Thursday.

“We’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “The next several days will be quite pleasant. We’re going to have a nice next several days with no precipitation until Monday night, so it looks like we may have a spring.”

Friday’s sunshine and temperatures into the 60s brought people in Mexico out in droves. Sandals, short pants, T-shirts, ice cream cones, and sidewalk strolls with family members bloomed in town.

“Today feels like the first day of spring,” Jennifer Heinzen of Mexico said Friday afternoon while taking her son, Kyler, 4, and daughter Madison, 7, on their first walk of the season to Frosty Delite on Main Street for ice cream. Several other customers also had the same idea, filling the area in front of the store.

“This is a big relief after all the rain and stuff,” she added.

At a bake and T-shirt sale benefit for 6-year-old leukemia victim Abbie Blauvelt of Rumford, in the Wal-Mart parking lot, people milled about, chattering about the warmth and large turnout.

“The sun feels really good,” 8-year-old Kyle Grover of Peru said, sporting a large yellow winking sun on her left cheek. “Me and my grammie saw a butterfly today.”

“The sun was definitely nice, especially with having all the kids here. They weren’t cold,” helper Tami Martel of Rumford said.

The heat and sun, however, wasn’t good for all the chocolate and desserts, which, as a result, were selling for half price early in the afternoon.

“It was all melting,” Cheryl Merchant of Peru said.

Plenty of snow was also melting in the River Valley area, creating hazards for drivers by undermining roads, like one small section of pavement on Route 120 in Roxbury Notch that collapsed.

According to a late Friday afternoon weather service bulletin, the warm temperatures were slightly above normal and could cause significant runoff and sharp rises in rivers and streams as the deep snowpack across the mountains and foothills melts rather quickly. Weekend breezes and the dry spell are also slowly driving up the danger of wood and brush fires.

But on Mount Washington in nearby New Hampshire, it’s still midwinter in Tuckerman and Huntington ravines. On Friday afternoon, White Mountain National Forest ranger Chris Joosen issued an elevated avalanche danger warning.

As of April 18, 74 inches of snow had fallen at the base of the ravines, famed for their spring skiing. Spokeswoman Alexis R. Jackson stated in the report that the snowfall had nearly doubled April’s long-term average.

Two avalanches on the weekend of April 14 caught eight people by surprise, seriously injuring one person, Jackson said.