Fourth of July weather in Seattle looks warm and sunny — we just have to get through a cool, rainy patch

People around here often say summer begins in earnest on July 5, based on years of cool or cloudy Fourth of July celebrations that make it common to see jackets on fireworks watchers.

But this year, forecasters say bundling up won’t be necessary: After a bit of cool-down and some rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, it looks like the sun will return Thursday.

We got a preview over the weekend, with a sunny Sunday that reached a high of 81 degrees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, about 6 degrees above normal for this time of year.

Monday was slightly cooler, with clear, sunny skies and highs in the 60s and 70s around Western Washington, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.

A significant cool-down was expected to start Monday evening into Tuesday as a strengthening onshore flow brings cooler marine air, cloud cover and showers to the region, weather service meteorologist Kirby Cook said.

There’s a chance of thunderstorms and lightning in the Cascades and some parts of Lewis County, so Cook advises that outdoor enthusiasts be prepared to take cover.

[Related: How to help dogs and other pets avoid freaking out over fireworks and holiday chaos]

Wednesday is also expected to be cool and cloudy, though likely less wet than Tuesday, he said.

But Thursday’s dry and mostly sunny conditions have it looking like “the best day of the week, except for Monday,” he said.

“High temperatures are likely to reach the mid- to upper 70s,” on Thursday, Cook said. “Our normal high is 75 degrees at Sea-Tac, with morning clouds and afternoon sun, and we are right in the neighborhood of typical.”

“The Fourth is looking pretty good,” he said.

Cook said that despite the likelihood of good weather on the Fourth, he will not be shooting off fireworks nor heading out to watch them.

“I avoid them,” he said. “Things are dry enough; we don’t need to shoot fire into the air and weeds.”

While the adage may be that Seattle’s summer unofficially begins July 5, the folks at the weather service sometimes joke that July 12 is the real start of summer, said meteorologist Chris Burke.

Up until then, he said, we are more likely to experience a continuation of what he called the “late spring period” with cloud cover, moderate temperatures and precipitation still in the mix.

While it has not actually rained on July 4 since 2010, the holiday week does tend to be wetter than the weeks that follow.

“We usually have rain and cloud cover at the beginning of July,” Burke said. The average precipitation for the first week of the month is three one-hundredths of an inch, he said, three times higher than is typical for the rest of the month, he said.