In typical July fashion, Summit County’s forecast is showing chances of rain nearly every afternoon this week.

National Weather Service meteorologist Zach Hiris said that while Monday, July 19, would be dry and smoky, Tuesday, July 20, is expected to bring a 50% chance of rain during the afternoon. The chance of rain will increase Wednesday, July 21, Hiris said.

“Wednesday looks like our best chance during the workweek with a pretty good chance, probably about 70% of rain during the afternoon,” Hiris said. “It quiets down a little bit for Thursday (July 22) and Friday (July 23), still looking at probably about a 50% chance each day for some showers and storms.”

Most of the rain in the forecast is expected to hit during the afternoon hours, Hiris said. Generally, he said storms would be hit or miss each day with about one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch of rain over the week, but some areas could see over an inch of rain depending on the duration of the storms.

Temperatures will decline slightly throughout the week, starting with a high of 83 degrees Monday and dipping to a high of 77 degrees by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service’s Frisco forecast.

Heading into the weekend, Hiris said chances of rain could increase and that the weather could shift to a wetter pattern. Weekend highs are expected to be in the high 70s.

As for the smoke forecast, Hiris said there will always be a chance of smoky skies until the fires out West are more contained. While it might be smoky into Tuesday, Hiris said relief is expected Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but said that it depends on whether regional fires become more active.

“For Summit County especially, it looks like later on this week it should get a little bit better,” Hiris said. “Overall, the pattern does look a bit more favorable for seeing clear skies around here.”

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which ranks drought severity on a scale of zero to 4, or abnormally dry to exceptional drought, Summit County’s drought severity ranges from patches of no drought in the eastern part of the county to small segments of extreme drought (3) in the western part of the county. The bulk of the county is between abnormally dry and severe drought (2).

Summit County’s drought severity hasn’t changed since the Drought Monitor’s June 8 update. The June 1 update showed all of Summit County in some level of drought.