We are going to cool things down a bit going into the Memorial Day weekend, but the temperature trend reverses itself once the weekend proper starts, and we will be looking at mid-summer conditions by the time you go back to work on Tuesday. The ridge of high pressure will strengthen through the weekend, taking Friday’s high in the mid-70s and sending then into the low 80s Saturday, the mid-to-upper 80s on Sunday and to about 90 degrees on Memorial Day Monday. Skies should stay mostly sunny throughout.

Yesterday, I listed the ten rainiest cities in the lower 48 states. Besides the fact that it doesn’t include any cities that are publicly perceived as being rainy places, the interesting thing is most of the precipitation that occurs in these areas doesn’t fall in the winter months… but during the summer. That’s because most of their precipitation comes from thunderstorms. If you have ever been caught in a Deep South thundershower, you know that the inches of rain can pile up in a real hurry.

The only nod to common perception is Olympia, Washington. While it doesn’t make the top ten in total precipitation, it did lead the way with the most rainy days per year with 63.