Scattered rain chances pop in for the last weekend of summer

Yesterday was the warmest day of this summer-like stretch as the afternoon high at the Rockford Airport peaked 2° shy of the 90° mark. 

 

 

As we close out the last full week of astronomical summer, temperatures remain summer, though cool as we inch towards the fall equinox. In fact, today's high of 83° is still on par with what we typically see in late-June and late July. However, today involves a bit more cloud cover and our next opportunity for rain and possibly a few thunderstorms. 

 

This will primarily be during the afternoon for spots near the Mississippi River, then shifting towards the I-39 corridor this evening into tonight. Isolated rain chances will carry on into Saturday morning, with lows falling into the low 60s. 

 

 

With low pressure spinning nearby, we can expect showers to be a possibility again Saturday afternoon into the early stages of Sunday. In the end, I think most locales will be able to pick up .25" to as much as .50" of rain. This will not a drought-buster, but it's something! Like today, an isolated thunderstorm or two cannot be ruled out. Highs will cool as the weekend progresses, landing around the 80° mark Saturday and then in the upper 70s Sunday.

This rollback in high temperatures comes just in time for the Fall Equinox on Monday. It's at 1:19PM when the sun's light crosses the celestial equator, resulting in nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness for all parts of the Earth. Average highs are typically in the low 70s and average lows are the low 50s. Highs will be in the upper 70s to start, then falling towards seasonable by Wednesday.