Cooler Tuesday, Tranquil Weather Continues

Tomorrow marks the 1st day of April (April Fool's Day). With all jokes aside, it was a very wet month of March in Rockford. Saturday's two inches of rain pushed the monthly rainfall total to just over five inches. A surplus over two and a half inches. This puts March 2020 as the fourth wettest March on record, following 1961 when 5.62 inches of rain fell. In fact, the wettest March on record was back in 1944 where the airport observed 6.20" of rainfall.

Fortunately, the dry spell we were subjected to yesterday is going to continue into our Tuesday, minus the abundance of sunshine. An area of high pressure has settled to the north of the region, and in doing so, changing our surface winds to the northeast. These winds are crossing over the waters of Lake Michigan dragging moisture onshore. All of this moisture will result in mostly cloudy skies for our Tuesday, and also much cooler highs this afternoon. Highs later on will top out around the mid to upper 40s, landing about 10-15° cooler than highs yesterday. A sprinkle or two is also possible, especially in our eastern areas. Depending on how far west the cloud cover stretches, areas to the west and southwest could see a decent amount of sunshine today.

Thankfully, the chilly weather doesn't last long, as today is going to be the coolest day of the 7 day forecast. Wednesday brings a return to more seasonable temperatures as a ridge of high pressure begins to build into the mid-levels of the atmosphere. This will allow for warmer air to slide northward. Highs for most locations will climb into the mid 50s with a mix of clouds and sunshine expected. Cloud cover will continue to increase into Thursday ahead incredibly slow-moving system. This system will bring rain chances for the end of the week, but also the return of 60° temps!