After some widespread to scattered showers Thursday into Friday, things will dry out as we head into the weekend and beyond. A blocking pattern aloft in the atmosphere will set up early next week, with a cutoff low pressure sitting to our South and a ridge of high pressure to the West. This will limit our precipitation chances and bring a gradual warming trend through much of next week.
First with the warmth: The next few days will remain relatively cool and closer to average with rain showers Thursday and Friday but drying out for Saturday. By early next week, temperatures will be on the rise, likely reaching well into the 70s by Tuesday.
The only slim chance for rain after Friday comes within the cutoff low drifting over Ohio and Indiana Sunday into Monday. If this were to trend further West, we might see a few light showers. But for now, I have maintained a dry forecast during this time. The next better chance for any precipitation looks to arrive toward the end of the week.
We definitely could use the rain. So far, the month of April has only brought 2.16" of rain to the Rockford airport, over an inch and a half shy from the normal mark through today's date. Meanwhile, the annual rainfall is just 6.23", more than three inches short of the average mark of 9.38". Moderate drought has been expanding across portions of Northwestern Illinois, while much of the Stateline has been identified as "abnormally dry" according to the latest drought monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center. May is typically the 3rd wettest month of the year, so hopefully we can make up some of the difference over the next several weeks.
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