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It's the second week of July. So where's summer?

caption: Axel Kuehn, 29, jumps off of a dock into Lake Washington near Madrona Park on Monday, July 30, 2018, in Seattle.
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Axel Kuehn, 29, jumps off of a dock into Lake Washington near Madrona Park on Monday, July 30, 2018, in Seattle.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

Summer officially began June 21, but in the Pacific Northwest some say it doesn't really kick off here until the Fourth of July.

"Here in the office, our weather service lore is that it doesn't really start until July 12,” said Chris Burke, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.

Burke said the first two weeks of July are often on the cool side and especially so this year.

"We are looking at an unusually wet system for July coming in Tuesday night and Wednesday,” Burke said.

So the next time we'll see the sun:

"We don't really have it in the forecast at the moment,” Burke said. “We'll have at least a chance of showers in the forecast through the entire seven days."

But there could be a silver lining to all those rain clouds. "Getting a little bit of rain every couple of weeks would be very good for keeping wildfire smoke down, keeping wildfires themselves down."

Clouds are in the forecast for Tuesday night, overnight lows in the 50s, and then the showers start Wednesday.

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