As is traditional for the Fourth of July weekend, some light rain could cool things down, but then again, maybe not.

“I’d expect you to see kind of what you saw (Wednesday),” said meteorologist Tom Renwick with the Grand Junction office of the National Weather Service. “Will you get any rain in town? I wish I were that good. It will depend on where you are. It might rain five miles out of town, and five miles away in town, nothing.”

Renwick said the San Juan Mountains and farther south are highlighted for storms in at least two computer models.

“These are just weak, little disturbances,” he said. “They just have enough oomph to fire up some storms and then move out. They’re just what we expect at this time of year. We call them ‘pop and drops.’ A thunderstorm pops up, drops a little rain and half an hour later, it’s finished.”

Is this the beginning of the monsoons?

“You’re not quite there yet,” he said. “The high-pressure system that starts them is bringing moisture to Utah right now. But at the end of next week, Friday and Saturday, it will probably start drifting east, and a nice plume of moisture will be coming up.”

The weather service is predicting a 30 percent chance of precipitation through Saturday night, and a 20 percent chance Sunday and Sunday night.

If there is rain, it’s most likely to fall in the afternoon and evening, so people planning to attend festivities anywhere in the area might want to take an umbrella along, just in case.

abutler@durangoherald.com