Monday's Morning's Rainfall

After a pleasant weekend with plenty of sunshine and low humidity, we are starting off the work week with a dousing of heavy rain across the Stateline. It's been the trend so far during the month of August in which the work week starts off with a good amount of rainfall. Including this morning's total of .98" (as of 10 A.M), rainfall on Monday's have contributed to 2.12" of Rockford's monthly total of 5.48". As the day progresses, we could tackle on a little more as rounds of heavy rain will likely stick around off-and-on through the remainder of our Monday.


Rainfall Totals (As of 10:00 A.M):

Rockford: .98"
Rochelle: .91"
Dekalb: .75"
Savanna: .69"
Sterling: .50"
Monroe: .36"

A low pressure system across central Illinois is the source for the pockets of heavy rain that pushed into the region this morning. This low will continue to push more moisture-rich air northward, rainfall totals could be quite impressive by the time the rain comes to an end. Overall, rain totals could approach 1" - 1.5", pushing 2" locally in some spots. It will make your life much easier if you keep the rain gear on hand today.

The latest update from the Storm Prediction Center has taken our viewing area out of the marginal (level 1 out of 5) risk. Instead, the region is currently in a general, non-severe thunderstorm risk for this afternoon. An embedded rumble of thunder is possible through the early hours. Higher risks for thunderstorms arrive this afternoon and evening ahead of an approaching cold front. The cloudy skies will help limit the severe potential later today as instability (or energy in the atmosphere) remains limited. This will also keep temperatures from climbing above 80°. Highs this afternoon may only climb into the mid-upper 70’s.  Dew points will be much higher than what we experienced over the weekend, meaning the mugginess is back. But not for long!

The cold front mentioned earlier is set to pass through early tonight. Not only will it bring lower humidity to the region, cooler and drier air will slowly inch southward behind the front. Expect high temperatures by midweek to drop just slightly into the low to mid 70’s with more sunshine returning to the forecast. It seems like we will stick with the below average temperatures through the end of August and into the start of September.