Will The Weather Hinder Your Return Trip This Memorial Day?

The Memorial Day weather across the U.S. continues to be fairly locked in place, with a threat of showers and storms in parts of the Southeast and Northeast, but decent weather in most other locations.

The animation below shows a rating of each day's weather forecast for cities across the country this Memorial Day. The greener the dots, the better the weather. The more orange and red dots, the more challenging the weather for each day.

Rain Threat

The threat of showers and thunderstorms will be most persistent in a zone from the lower Mississippi Valley to parts of the East.

Areas in the darker green contours on the map below have the highest chance of these showers with locally heavy rain, especially in parts of Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi.

That said, the rest of the weekend won't be a complete washout in these areas. There will be dry hours, even in the lighter green shaded areas below.

At least isolated afternoon and evening thunderstorms are possible through the end of the day in the Rockies and Four Corners Region. A separate Pacific front will bring wetter, cooler weather to the Pacific Northwest as well.

If you have outdoor plans, have a backup in place in case showers and storms threaten. You can set rain and lightning alerts on The Weather Channel app that can give you advanced notice of any of these showers and storms this weekend.

(MAPS: 7-Day US Rainfall Forecasts)

Hot Or Not?

Fortunately, we're not anticipating many record highs or lows this weekend, certainly nothing resembling the searing heat we've seen in the East this week.

Parts of the Northeast, where showers or cloudy skies are more persistent, could see highs stuck either in the 50s or 60s before a warmup begins. So you may need a light jacket, even in the afternoon, in these areas, even if it's not raining at the time.

And with the exception of Florida, the southern heat should be tolerable, with highs in the 80s and even a few 70s, due to the clouds and showers.

Some warmth in the Northwest will spread into the Northern Plains and upper Midwest as the weekend wears on, with highs in the 80s, perhaps even a few 90s becoming increasingly common.

(MAPS: Daily US Highs/Lows)

Muggy Or Comfortable?

While we don't expect a lot of extreme heat, it's also worth asking if you'll be sweating more than usual outside.

The map below shows our forecast dew points for Memorial Day afternoon. Generally, dew points in the 50s start to feel a tad humid, 60s feel somewhat muggy, and 70s feel oppressively muggy.

(MET 101: Why Dew Point Beats Relative Humidity)

As you can see below, parts of the Deep South will be quite muggy this weekend, but nothing too off the charts for late May.

Parts of the mid-Atlantic, mid-Mississippi and Ohio Valleys will be humid, while the air should be relatively comfortable elsewhere.

In areas where dew points are in the 50s or lower, you may be able to open windows and air out for at least a few hours, if pollen or dust counts are low.

Our thoughts are with all who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country, as well as their families this holiday weekend.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.​