Hey, Cudaden. Two things. First, I'm glad you want to participate, and I'm sure you'll make it happen.
The other thing is that good pictures do not only happen in good weather. Each of the past two years has had a winning shot in snow. Three years ago (I think) there was a winning shot done in "simulated rain", where (if I remember correctly) the photographer, after hosing down his car, set up a garden hose to spray water in front of the camera to look like a rainstorm. Think how much better real rain could have looked
I know that for my personal work, there tends to be a correlation between bad weather and the aesthetic quality of the shot. So, short form, don't let weather scare you.
If you're worried about rain hurting your camera, I usually carry an appropriately sized ziploc bag if the weather is threatening. Put the camera in, make a hole for the lens, and the camera is instantly 95% waterproofed. This also works well at the beach to keep sand out, although I don't make a hole for the lens at the beach; just take the camera out only when you're using it.