Will Okotokians see rain on their parade?

The annual Okotoks Parade and Children's Festival is coming up on Saturday and it looks like a trend of on-and-off rain in Southern Alberta is starting on the same day.

Environment & Climate Change Canada meteorologist Justin Shelley said the Okotoks area is likely to see patches of rain later in the afternoon.

"For the 11 to 3 p.m. period, it does look like the better chance of isolated showers or risk of a thunderstorm will be later in that period. I'd say probably the first half looks like a better bet to be more dry and then the second half, you'll have to worry about isolated showers in the region."

There is also the chance a thunderstorm could form and potentially drift into town.

"It doesn't look particularly intense from a larger scale pattern. If we're just talking about some isolated showers that might only be on the order of a couple millimetres of precipitation, however, if a thunderstorm were to form along the foothills and move over the region, then you can have, locally, pretty heavy rains with that. That would be something for anyone who's going to be out in the region to keep in mind. If those thunderstorms do come to fruition and do move into the area, that they do have a safe space they can go into during that time."

The current forecast shows a chance of rain every day from Saturday to Thursday, June 14.

Shelley said the worst of it would fall further to the west.

"Right now it looks like the Okotoks region might not be in the area of the heaviest precipitation we're expecting along the foothills just to the west over the higher terrain where we're looking at some higher precipitation amounts, possibly in the order of 20-40 millimetres along that higher terrain. Likely also some snowfall at higher elevations as we're going to get into a cooler airmass over the weekend. For the Okotoks region, it'll be more of some intermittent showers through the weekend and. It remains a bit unsettled through the early part of next week before we start to see a warming and drying pattern by the middle to the end of next week."

So, Okotokians should be ready for some showers on parade day, and stay on the lookout for sinister-looking clouds.

In the event a thunderstorm does roll in, Shelley referred to an old adage.

"Keep aware, for anyone outside, for that risk of thunderstorms. Just remember, when thunder roars, go indoors."