Drought conditions expand in northern Illinois following dry and warm stretch of weather

 

The last time Rockford received any measurable rainfall was back on September 21st when 0.74 inches fell. Since then, we've been high and dry, and warm. With the ongoing dry spell and rise in temperatures it should come as no surprise that drought conditions have expanded across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. With 100 percent of the state considered abnormally dry, moderate drought conditions have now grown to nearly 74 percent of the state - with much of northern Illinois now in that category. Central and southern Illinois are in severe drought conditions.

Drought and heat go hand-in-hand and can often times be a hard cycle to break. Our prospects for any significant rainfall remain on the lower end with our only hope within the next seven days occurring with the arrival of a cold front Monday into Tuesday. After that it looks like we'll dry things out once again until possibly the middle of the month.