Dry stretch comes to an end with Wednesday afternoon showers/storms

The nearly week long dry stretch will come to an end Wednesday as a cold front slides through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, bringing with it scattered showers and thunderstorms.  The rain Wednesday won't be widespread, unfortunately, so there will likely be some locations that don't receive much - if any - rainfall Wednesday afternoon and evening. 

Ongoing thunderstorms across Wisconsin and Minnesota will remain north, along a cold front, Tuesday evening as skies locally begin to see an increase in cloud cover.  With a mostly dry night ahead and southwest winds temperatures will only dip into the upper 60s and low 70s, making it another muggy night.  As the cold front slowly drifts south late Wednesday morning and afternoon, an increase in scattered showers and thunderstorms are likely between 1pm and 8pm; although a few isolated storms could develop before that.

High amounts of moisture in the atmosphere will make any thunderstorm that does develop a very efficient producer of heavy rain, which could impact some of the afternoon and evening commute.  A few stronger wind gusts are possible as well, but our overall risk for strong/severe storms looks to remain low.  Even though temperatures may fall short of 90 degrees Wednesday, it will still feel muggy as moisture will be slow to depart.

A few lingering showers are possible into Thursday morning as skies are likely to remain mostly cloudy through at least the first half of the day.  After that drier air will begin to move in Thursday evening and Friday.

Temperatures will cool slightly following the cold front by the end of the week, and possibly into the weekend as another system is set to move in.  This one could fall more to the south of the immediate Stateline, keeping the warmer mass further downstate. With both the low and frontal boundary 'stalling' out nearby, the chance for showers and thunderstorms will continue through the weekend and next week, although we'll likely see plenty of dry time as well.  Temperatures during that time will remain in the 70s and 80s, but could warm back close to 90 degrees by the middle of next week.

Tuesday's high temperature of 93 degrees was the 16th time this year that the high has reached 90 degrees, or higher, in Rockford.  Thirteen of those days occurred during the month of June!  On average Rockford tends to see about fourteen 90 degree days, so we're well on our way to rising above that.  There have also only been a handful of years that have experienced this many 90 degree days through the beginning of July; 1911, 1921, 1933, 1934, 1949 and 2012!