Get ready for 85-degree weather.

The National Weather Service is calling for a high of 86 degrees Saturday.

That will follow a warming trend starting today with the mercury hitting 72 degrees, staying there Wednesday and then inching up to 79 degrees Thursday and 81 degrees on Friday. Rain may return by next Monday but without the cold as the high on April 23 is expected to be 73 degrees.

The outlook for the next five days doesn’t bother Toby Smith. He didn’t like spending the majority of last week cooped up in the house.

Sure he liked listening to the rolling thunder and seeing the lightning when he looked out of the front window of his Manteca home.

But all he wanted to do was join his friends in a game of touch football or catch at the park down the street – something that both the rain and the fact that the basin itself had been transformed into a virtual lake had nullified.

He’ll definitely get his chance this week.

“It’s not fun having to stay inside,” he said. “You can only play video games for so long. We didn’t get to go out at recess either. But this week we can, and it’s going to be fun.”

The rain, however, has done wonders for everybody from water agencies to ski resorts.

Lake Tahoe’s Squaw Valley has seen more than 17 feet of new snow fall since March 1 to help bail out what had been an abysmal winter to that point. Dodge Ridge normally shutters for the season after Easter weekend but stayed open an extra week to give customers more time on the slopes. It allowed them to take advantage of the fresh snow and make up for what was an abnormally late start to the season.

Meghan Milsep says she didn’t mind the storms and is looking forward to any future rain that may be coming.

She’s in no hurry to make it to the harsh Central Valley summers that she still hasn’t gotten used to since moving to Manteca from the Bay Area.

“Right now this weather is perfect. A little rain never really hurt anybody,” she said. “It’ll be 100 degrees before we know it, and we’ll be wishing it was 60 degrees and raining.

“I’m going to appreciate it while it’s still here.”