Summer Drought Starts Tomorrow?

I have a friend that farms in Leachville. I'm waiting for him to text me to ask if tomorrow is the start of the drought. I may have to answer, yes. We are seeing a pattern change over the next few days. Let's take a look at some upper level maps that show us what the pattern will be over the next week. First, let's look at what we have today:

Right now, a trough of low pressure is causing clouds and showers in the Eastern part of the USA and a disturbance moving through the northern parts of the US has showers and storm. We run the risk of seeing a few storms late today and tonight as the disturbance passes north of us, but the pattern is changing! By Sunday we start seeing the Ridge building in:

A dome of high pressure in Mexico starts nudging NE, which will start to raise our temperatures as the air compresses. Compressed air heats up! On to Memorial Day:

The large area of high pressure is over the Eastern US and keeping a large part of the area dry and hot. In fact, take a look at the temperatures across the country for Memorial Day at 1PM (click to enlarge):

We could easily be in the 90s for several afternoons next week. As we go toward the end of May, look how the ridge is still hanging out:

As we transition to summer, keep in mind that a pop up storm is possible each afternoon somewhere. Here's my point though, the summer pattern starts tomorrow and there is no sign of it letting go for several days.

Stay cool next week!
Ryan