Not all cold fronts are created equal

You may recall all the heavy rain, hail, wind and lightning we received in the Stateline area a little over a week ago. 2.3" of rain fell in Rockford between April 3rd and 7th. The majority of this rain fell ahead of a cold front that dropped our high temperatures from the 70s on the 4th, 5th, and 6th to 49 degrees on April 7th. Although the front that will pass through the area very early Friday morning will bring a 20 or so degree drop in temperatures, it won't bring us nearly as much rainfall. As of this writing, only a narrow band of light rain (about 30-50 miles wide) is approaching us from the west. Also, our dewpoint temperatures are still in the 40s... A sign of dry air. Although slightly more robust dewpoints in the upper 50s and low 60s can be found right along the front in eastern Iowa and parts of western Wisconsin, this pales in comparison to the widespread 60+ degree dewpoints we saw ahead of last weeks front. A few spots might see a brief heavy shower with thunder tonight, otherwise I'd be surprised to see many of us get more than about 1/4 inch of rain.