The streets of Amman are decorated with flags, banners and bunting to celebrate the return of King Hussein after a six-month absence for cancer treatment.
More than a million people are expected to line the route of his motorcade and join in numerous street parties arranged to welcome him home to Jordan, as they did when he returned from the US after having a cancerous kidney removed in 1992.
"If it stops raining, there could be two million," a Jordanian friend remarked. But no one is seriously cursing the rain, the first of the season.
Two days ago, an emergency was declared in Jordan due to drought. The rains began on the eve of Eid al-Fitr - the feast that ends the fasting month of Ramadan and coincides with the King's return. It is said that rain on the feast day heralds a good wet season.
The King is projecting an image of business-as-usual by piloting his own plane to Amman from Britain, where he has been recuperating from a debilitating course of chemotherapy.
From the moment he steps out of the plane, he will have a daunting schedule of meetings with members of the government, officials and a host of Arab rulers who have asked to greet him.
Among those who have proposed a visit are the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The not-so-brotherly brotherhood of Arab rulers seek his mediation on the running crises over Iraq and Palestine. He is just about the only member of this fraternity with the connections and credibility to achieve some sort of breakthrough on both fronts.
King Hussein enjoys good relations with President Clinton, President Saddam Hussein and Israel's politicians. Without relaxation in the US-Iraq confrontation or some sort of progress in implementing the Palestinian-Israeli accords, the already tense and unstable situation in the region could deteriorate further or reach flashpoint in various places.
The King also has daunting and difficult domestic decisions to take. His kingdom is, in the words of a Jordanian informant, "on edge".
In addition to the issues of water, corruption, administrative reform, unemployment and economic slide, King Hussein must now address the knotty problem of who is going to succeed him.
Informed sources say he is expected to do this immediately so that the issue is settled before he returns to the US for a check-up in March. He will call a family council to discuss the matter fully before announcing his choice. Until he does - and perhaps until the people get used to the idea of someone else at the helm in future - Jordan will remain "on edge".
King Hussein is the only ruler more than half of his four million subjects have known, since they were born after he succeeded his grandfather, King Abdullah, assassinated in 1951 while praying in al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.