Summer days are coming soon to Lodi

Say goodbye to cool weather, because Lodi’s about to heat up.

While today and Wednesday are expected to stay cool, the mercury is expected to start rising on Thursday, hitting the low to mid-90s this weekend. And they’ll likely stay in the high 80s and low 90s for a while, said senior meteorologist Carl Erickson of the private forecasting firm Accuweather.

“As we go through the next couple of weeks, we’re going to see a rather prolonged warming trend coming our way,” he said.

The warm weather could last through the first week or so of June, if not longer.

While that’s good news for summer lovers, the Lodi area — and most of Northern California — is also likely to have dried up for the season, too.

Northern California has already had a dry year.

“Looks like a solid close to five inches below average for rainfall this year so far,” Erickson said.

Accuweather’s closest weather station is at the Stockton International Airport. In Lodi, a weather station run by dentist Patrick Sweeney had recorded 8.6 inches of rain so far this season — from July to June — with 0.44 of those in May. Numbers were collected from Sweeney’s website at 6 p.m. Monday.

By this time in an average rainfall season, Lodi usually sees about 17 inches of rain, with 0.34 inches in an average May.

Even the late rainfall this month has not made up for the dry months earlier this winter.

The U.S. Drought Monitor declared most of Northern California in moderate to severe drought as of May 12. San Joaquin County is in a moderate drought, with conditions in the northwest corner of the county classified as severe drought.

Sacramento County is mainly in severe drought, though the eastern edge of the county drops to moderate, according to the Drought Monitor.

As of April 30, the state’s snowpack at Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe was only 3% of the average for this time of year. Statewide, the snowpack was about 37% of average.

The higher-than-usual temperatures expected this summer could also raise the risk of wildfires, Erickson said.

As the weather warms up, residents should take precautions to keep cool and avoid heat exhaustion.

“Limit outdoor activities to morning and early evening if you do have to be outdoors,” Erickson said.

Residents should also drink plenty of fluids, check on elderly loved ones and neighbors to make sure they are keeping cool, and conserve their water use, he said.

Children and pets should never be left alone in cars on hot days, even with the windows cracked, he said.

“It looks like a very prolonged stretch of quiet but warmer weather for the next couple of weeks,” Erickson said.