summertime made by dagomatic on Flickr

Happy penultimate day of summer! To celebrate we'll have a summerlike dew point today. Without the summer heat that will make for a mild and clammy Wednesday. Look for a high in the mid 70s, plenty of clouds and a slight chance of rain this afternoon.

Rain and clouds will be our intermittent companion for the remainder of the week and the first few days of autumn. A surface and upper-level low pressure system is stacked over the Upper Midwest this morning. That system is expected to take several days to move eastward. The surface low will drag lots of moisture our way before it gets here and the upper-level low will throw ninja stars of vorticity that will get the clouds and showers churning.

The first round of significant rain will probably start late tonight. That will be followed by another round of showers, and possibly a thunderstorm, starting around noon tomorrow. Tomorrow's high should reach the upper 70s. It looks now like Friday, the first day of fall, will be the the end of next week. Who knows, by then maybe Tropical Storm Ophelia will pay us a visit.