Will weather jeopardize local firework shows?

Fireworks and the 4th of July, the summer’s equivalent of Christmas trees and Christmas.

Except rain won’t cancel anyone’s Christmas tree.

“I have thought about the weather, and thought about the weather and at the end of the day I can’t do anything about the weather.” Said Mike Dunn, when asked about he was concerned over the weather cancelling his fireworks.

Dunn coordinates Red White and Boom in Salisbury.

He says in a given year, making the call to postpone fireworks is a delicate dance.

He tries to wait until the last minute before delivering disappointing news.

Even last year when Hurricane Arthur was threatening.

“We had a hurricane coming through on the second and the third and the fourth. And a lot of communities around here cancelled their fireworks early.”

Arthur passed through quickly, and Red, White & Boom went off on time. Dunn says the decision to cancel comes down to the type of weather threat.

“We will not be stubbornly moving forward if there’s things like thunder and lightning in the area obviously that makes things a lot different.”

But if it’s just rain, all they need is an opening.

“If there is a window of opportunity, we need about 20 to 25 minutes to launch.” Says Dunn.

The thing about summer weather in the Mid-Atlantic is that it can be volatile.

Storms seem to just materialize.

While bad weather is a threat on Saturday, it’s a relatively small one.

47 ABC’s Chief Meteorologist Travis Michels shed some light on if the weather would affect firework displays tomorrow. “The unstable boundary that’s going to be sliding through, that’s going to be happening around mid-day, so hopefully that’s going to clear out all of the dangerous types of weather. We’re mainly just looking at just a pop-up, a little sprinkle.”

A little sprinkle won’t hurt, in fact, it might help.

“If it has been damp that won’t bother anything. Sometimes with a low ceiling, I’ve been told, the fireworks actually reflect better.” Says Dunn.

Dunn says that if the severe weather does kick in, the fireworks would be set off on Sunday.

Fireworks in Salisbury, Dewey Beach, and Ocean City will be taking place tomorrow.

The fireworks set for the Easton Carnival are cancelled but the carnival will go on.

Rehoboth Beach fireworks are set to go up on Sunday.