Showers expected this week, weekend with temperatures warming up for Memorial Day

More showers are in store for this week after what may have felt like a rainy Spokane weekend. But temperatures are expected to rise for the Memorial Day holiday.

This past weekend’s showers were not enough to ease Spokane County’s drought, said Steven Van Horn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Spokane.

More than 58% of the county is abnormally dry, but it takes sustained rain, often over the course of a few days, to affect drought levels, he said.

“We need kind of multiple rounds of good soaking rain,” Van Horn said.

Most of the rain this weekend fell during Sunday night’s thunderstorm, with reports of a quarter of an inch to half of an inch of rainfall from downtown Spokane to Spokane Valley.

A similar weather system is expected to blow in late Tuesday through Wednesday morning, bringing potentially another half-inch of rain to the region, Van Horn said.

The high temperature Wednesday is forecast to be in the low to mid-50s.

The rain will taper off Thursday before another low-pressure system brings more Friday and Saturday.

“That one is going to give us another shot at some precipitation,” Van Horn said, noting the second storm would likely bring less rain.

Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 50s to lower 60s, he said.

As showers slow, temperatures are likely to rise, culminating in a high of almost 70 for Memorial Day Monday, Van Horn said.