Wild weather in the east, thunder and lightning warning in the South Sound

A wild storm system expected to impact much of the U.S. will gift the Pacific Northwest with a weirdly warm Memorial Day weekend. The price of admission is just another week of rain.

Much of Western Washington awoke to a damp Saturday morning, and though the clouds revealed peaks of blue sky mid-day, the rain will likely return. We might even hear some thunder Saturday night.

If you’re going to T-Mobile Park for the Seattle Mariners game with the San Diego Padres, with first pitch at 5:40 p.m., watch for thunder and lightning, NWS cautioned. That’s true if you’re outside anywhere, the agency added early Saturday morning.

The National Weather Service in Seattle forecasts at least six days ahead with similarly drizzly mornings. Still, the sun should make an appearance most days while temperatures hover in the 50s during the day and drop into the 40s at night.

Across the country, NWS has warned of more severe weather caused by “two upper level features” colliding around the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains.

Residents in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont could see heavy winds, large hail and flash flooding. The storms will rile the rest of the Northeast as they tumble down through Texas. The West, meanwhile, will catch “widespread showers and gusty winds” and temperatures dropping enough to build fresh snow at high elevations in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, NWS wrote in its weekend report. The plains could also experience flash flooding.

All that tumult will have nearly the opposite effect in the southwest, as heavy winds could lead to “critical fire weather” in New Mexico and western Texas. It’s also hot as heck along the Gulf Coast, as nearly 100-degree temperatures could break May records from Texas to Florida.

Back in Puget Sound, typical rainy, fairly cool spring weather will finally yield to a string of warm — for us! — days.

Temperatures will break 60 mid-week. Heading into Memorial Day weekend, the sun should shine by Friday, said NWS, when we can bask in 70-degree days and maybe even almost-80 by the national holiday.

Just don’t get too excited: Although the work week “is expected to be drier,” wrote NWS Seattle, it won’t be “shower-free.”