A meteorologist with Environment Canada says festivalgoers should plan for rain this weekend in Steinbach.

Summer In The City runs from Friday to Sunday in downtown Steinbach. Natalie Hasell says the festival will kick off Friday with a beautiful day. With a mix of sun and cloud and a high of 26 degrees, it will actually be slightly warmer than normal for this time of year. 

But Hasell says Saturday will be a different story. 

"(Saturday) we are expecting showers and thunderstorms," says Hasell. "This is pretty much all day and into the evening."

Hasell says though Environment Canada is not calling for severe thunderstorms on Saturday, it would not surprise her if the wind got gusty at times and if Steinbach even saw some hail. 

"People do need to take precautions and be flexible in their plans," she suggests. 

Even though the public forecast calls for only a 60 per cent chance of showers on Saturday, Hasell says she is pretty sure it will rain. 

"I'm not exactly sure at what time that's going to happen," she admits. "Right now, for you folks, a chance of showers starts pretty early in the day. So, I would expect things to be wet and a little bit gusty."

Hasell encourages people to wear a raincoat or carry an umbrella if they are headed to the festival on Saturday. 

Then on Sunday, Hasell says we should get a break from the rain. Having said that, she notes that even though their forecast calls for a mix of sun and cloud on Sunday, she would not be surprised if there was the odd shower.

Hasell says the next system is scheduled to arrive on Monday, which should produce cloudy conditions and a chance of rain. 

Meanwhile, all those who have been closely watching Environment Canada's forecast this week, may have noticed that as of Thursday there were a lot of rainy days in the seven-day forecast. Yet, by Friday, most of that rain had turned to sunshine. Hasell warns the public that their forecast is still quite fluid, noting that we are in a time of year when it is hard to go several days without rain. And, because of how much it has rained recently, there is a lot of local surface moisture available to any developing clouds. 

Hasell says in the last 24 hours there has been a bit of a shift as to where the low-pressure system was supposed to be over the next several days. She notes this may be why the forecast has changed, suggesting some of that rain might now be forecast to fall elsewhere. 

"I know the mix of sun and cloud is very encouraging in the forecast, but I'd be wary about it," says Hasell. "We don't need systems for thunderstorms to form. We could just have the three components of moisture, instability, and some other kind of trigger to lead to some showery activity."

She notes the weather models are shifting things all the time and right now she would take the forecast with a grain of salt.