Clouds Increase and Rain Moves in for the Weekend

All good things must come to an end and unfortunately that means an end to the sun-filled skies from earlier this week.  Mostly cloudy to cloudy skies will stick around through the weekend, with a few light showers developing late Thursday night and Friday.

Increasing moisture from the south and west allowed clouds to quickly move in Thursday morning, but drier air near the surface prevented any rainfall from reaching the surface during the afternoon and evening.  As moisture continues to be pulled into northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, eventually the entire atmosphere will become saturated allowing the rain to reach the ground.  This will likely occur after Midnight, and most likely between 2am and 4am Friday morning.  The more steady rain will occur further downstate, closer tied to where low pressure will be located.  Skies remain mostly cloudy Friday with light drizzle/showers through the afternoon.

Most of Saturday looks to remain dry but a quick moving low pressure system will dive southeast out of the northern Plains Saturday night, and into southern Wisconsin by Sunday morning.  Warm air ahead of the low will allow rain showers to develop and continue into the morning Sunday.  Once the low passes Sunday afternoon most of the showers will be ending, but a few will linger into Sunday evening.

Rainfall totals will remain light and under a tenth of an inch from Thursday night through Saturday afternoon.  Even on Sunday rainfall totals will be light and right around a quarter of an inch.  After Sunday the next chance for rain will move in Tuesday and Tuesday evening.