Weekend Kicks Off with a Chance of Rain

After a rather rainy week in the Stateline, more rain is expected to ring in the weekend.

This past week saw rain fall on the Stateline every day from Monday through Thursday. This included a 24-hour rain total of 0.82” on Tuesday helping Rockford to shrink its monthly rain deficit. Through the 25th, Rockford is now only 0.3” shy of the normal month-to-date rain total having accumulated 1.47” since the 10^th. The first 9 days of March saw no rain whatsoever, a rare feat that’s only been seen on three other occasions in recorded history, the last being in 1950. Another peculiar fact regarding the rain this month is that no rain has fallen during the weekend since the month began. That, however, is about to change.

As of Friday evening, a warm front extending eastward from a center of low pressure is draped across the southeast Midwest. To its north sits a swath of scattered showers propagating toward the Stateline. This rain is expected to move into the Stateline shortly after midnight and continue falling in the fashion of scattered showers until around daybreak on Saturday. At this time, the rain is expected to be a bit more widespread and remain as such through the morning. Breaking up in coverage once again, scattered showers are then probable through much of the afternoon and likely stretching into part of the evening. At the time of publication, no thunderstorms are expected though a few claps of thunder are certainly possible, particularly in the morning and late afternoon. A good breeze is also forecast to accompany the rain with gusts upwards of 25-30 mph throughout the day and temperatures are expected to climb into the upper 50’s, and even lower 60’s, thanks to a warm air mass moving into the area.

Gusts will pick up a bit heading into Sunday as higher pressure moves in behind the storm system. This will introduce a good amount of dry air into the Stateline and clear away much of the cloud cover through Saturday night and Sunday morning. This will allow for a good deal of sunshine as the weekend comes to a close. Cool northwesterly flow diverging from the center of high pressure will bring temperatures down into the lower 50’s before 60’s are expected to return by Monday with lots of sunshine in the forecast to open another work week.