Mother Nature could bring some fireworks of its own during the Independence Day festivities on Friday, as the most current forecasts predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms through the holiday weekend.

According to Joshua Adam, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, the storm front will arrive late this afternoon with a slight uptick of severe weather potential in western North Dakota. Adam said it would include scattered severe thunderstorms with accompanying golf ball sized hail. While the storms could also feature wind speeds up to 70 mph, Adam said the potential for tornados wasn’t that high.

Friday is expected to be hot and muggy despite mostly cloudy conditions with a high of 87 degrees F and a low of 60 degrees F. There is a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms mainly after 1 p.m., but that likelihood could change depending on how the storm system develops. The rainy weather is forecasted to continue through the weekend, but cloud conditions should improve with highs of 81 and 77 degrees F and lows of 56 and 55 degrees F, respectively.

“It does look like there will at least be chances through the entire weekend for some storms and some showers. Especially on Saturday, that will be the highest period for the weekend period itself, around those 30 to 50% chance marks. Sunday is looking a little bit more iffy around the 10 to 25% chance mark,” Adam said. “The bigger message for this holiday weekend, especially on Friday for the Fourth of July itself, we are anticipating maybe some chances for widespread thunderstorms and stuff like that. So folks should be prepared for that to come through.”

While Adam said the situation could change as the weather system develops, he advised the public to take the possible weather into account when making their Independence Day plans.

One person keeping their eye on the Friday’s weather is Derrick Miller with Mum Pyrotechnics, who is set to fire off a “pyro musical” firework display at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds Friday evening.

“The best we can do is play it by ear. As long as the forecast on Friday looks like a good chance to shoot we will load the show as expected,” Miller said. “If rain and random storms are expected, we waterproof the display and equipment as much as possible. Once shells are loaded, it’s extremely dangerous to unload them manually.”

Miller advised those planning to attend the show to download the pyrocast app and input the show code “9XZZ” to get real time updates from Mum Pyrotechnics, and even get a livestream of the audio track which will accompany the fireworks.