Rain chances few and far between

 

The latest drought monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center continues to show abnormally dry conditions across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, but little change locally has taken place over the last few weeks. That's good, however, we are still in a deficit for precipitation - not only for the month of June, but also for the entire year. For the month of June, we have received a little over 1.3 inches of precipitation, placing us at 1.62 inches below average. For the year, we've received 12.88 inches, placing us at 3.61 inches below the average.

The dry conditions are the lingering impacts from the extreme drought that developed last year. While we've made some progress in our soil moisture this year, deep soil moisture is still lacking. And with the recent hot, dry and windy conditions we have likely lost some of that moisture from recent rainfall.

The overall pattern heading into the weekend and early next week doesn't feature a lot of opportunity for rainfall. In fact, our next chance for rain may not occur until the middle to end of next week! High pressure working through the Upper Midwest Friday, shifting into the Great Lakes Saturday, will keep conditions mostly dry and comfortable. Temperatures will warm into the low to mid 80s with overnight lows in the low 50s! We may see a little more cloud cover work in late Saturday night and Sunday with an upper level disturbance moving down the western Great Lakes. This could give us a sprinkle or brief, light shower Sunday morning, but with high pressure in control we should remain mostly dry.

A strong ridge of high pressure will build back in early next week pushing temperatures into the mid and upper 90s Monday and Tuesday. Some of that warmth could last into Wednesday, but there is a cold front that'll move through the Midwest. This front will bring with it the chance for a few showers and thunderstorms.

The extended outlook continues to favor the above normal temperature trend, as well as the below

normal precipitation trend. This isn't really good news, especially with the precipitation being on the lower end, and temperatures remaining warm/hot.