Rain today, sun tomorrow, mosquitoes by June

• The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. - Dolly Parton

Longfellow and Parton in the same breath? Everyone has an opinion about rain. Weather wisdom comes from seemingly unlikely places.

Umbrellas and wipers are out in force again today as the last in a series of low pressure waves slides through Minnesota. Expect a wet commute from midday on today in the metro.

Rainfall totals look to bracket one-quarter of an inch to one-half of an inch today across much of Minnesota. A little less north, a bit more south.

The low-pressure wave finally slides east tomorrow. Some mixed sun returns to Minnesota on northwest breezes. A vigorous cold front funnels south by Friday for the big fishing opener weekend. Yes, it's still mid-May in Minnesota.

Where's my Weatherspark?

Many of you have contacted me about the vanishing act of the lovely model driven meteograms from Weatherspark. I too am missing the nifty product, a valuable too to display model output graphically. Here's the story on what happened from Weatherspark.

Weatherspark still has some cool forecast tools. Here's today's slightly less attractive meteogram.

I also like the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model output meteogram from YR Norway. How are your Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion skills these days?

NOAA's meteograms can be a bit clunky, but useful.

For longer range tables, IPS Meteostar has a nice layout for NOAA's Global Forecast System 16-day output. It's s little weather geeky, but then again so are you if you're reading this. Warm wet and thundery starting the weekend of May 21?

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center agrees with the notion of a warmer pattern by late next week.

Warmer and wetter means one thing is looking more certain this spring. A healthy crop of mosquitoes may be blowing into town by around the first of June.

Weather Lab and Climate Cast Friday at 10 a.m.

MPR News Senior Producer Jeff Jones and I are putting the finishing touches on what should be a great Weather Lab and Climate Cast hour this Friday at 10 a.m. on MPR news stations.

At 10 am we'll talk "fire weather" with fire experts and air quality meteorologists. How do large fires generate their own weather systems like pyrocumulus clouds, lightning, and fire tornadoes? Are wildfire-driven smoke events like last weekend becoming more common?

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At 10:30 am on Climate Cast we talk about why climate change is the biggest driver of water resources going forward. How much is water scarcity a driver of climate change refugees? Science and environment reporter Chris Mooney from the Washington Post and Peter Gleick from The Pacific Institute will join me.

I hope you will join me for what should be an interesting discussion Friday morning.