Dry Stretch Comes to an End - Storms Likely Thursday Afternoon

The past several days have been pretty dry with only a few sprinkles or very light showers being recorded this past week.  That dry stretch of weather, though, will be coming to an end as early as Thursday morning for some.


Rainfall is not expected to be widespread Thursday afternoon.  And that's because despite a rise in dew point temperatures, our atmosphere will still remain fairly dry.  A line of decaying showers have been moving into Wisconsin and far northern Iowa Wednesday afternoon and evening.  This is ahead of the main cold front that is expected to move through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois by Thursday afternoon. 

Very light showers are possible over southern Wisconsin and far northern Illinois around sunrise Thursday, but most will likely remain dry.  As the cold front approaches, we will see an uptick in a few thunderstorms for the afternoon - likely after 2pm - and early evening.  Instability in the atmosphere will increase ahead of the front, mostly because we will be pulling in a little more moisture than what's in place now, and we could see some sunshine poke through during the first half of the day.  However, the cold front itself

and low pressure system associated with the front aren't very strong.  Winds the jet stream, however, will be strong and this may be just enough to help grow thunderstorms to low end severe limits with strong winds gusts and possibly quarter sized hail.  The overall threat for strong thunderstorms is low, but it's there.  Not everyone will experience rain on Thursday and there will be some towns that may even go completely dry during the afternoon. 

Thursday Outlook
Storm Prediction Center

Once the front passes skies will remain mostly cloudy into Friday and this will hold temperatures down in the 70's for the afternoon.  Winds will be a little breezy, too.  Weekend doesn't look too bad with only an isolated shower chance late Saturday and into Sunday.