Dry and unseasonably cool stretch through the weekend

 Much of Thursday featured overcast skies with a little bit of humidity as a cold front slowly progressed through the area. Rockford still warmed into the low 80s despite this, hitting 82° for the high. As of 6PM, much of Northwestern Illinois was behind the front as skies began to clear. A few very isolated showers developed along the front, but most remained dry.

Another characteristic of this front is the much drier air flowing in behind it. It's easy to spot where the front was at 6PM, with dew points down in the 40s to the Northwest in Central Wisconsin.

The clearing and cooling trend will persist overnight as we will be under mostly to completely clear skies after 11PM. This will allow temperatures to fall into the low 50s overnight for many. I wouldn't be shocked to see a few locations even touch the upper 40s just before sunrise!

Tonight's chill is just the beginning of the stretch of cool weather heading into the weekend. Each of the next 3 days will feature highs in the mid-70s, which is more comparable to the average highs we typically see in mid- to late-September! Even overnight lows will remain cool, in the low and mid-50s through this time.

Another positive about this pattern is that it will also be dry. The upper level low responsible for the cool weather will also keep moisture shunted to the South and West through Sunday, keeping more widespread moisture and rain chances away. Eventually the low pulls away and moisture returns, but that wouldn't be until at least Monday. Initial rain chances through early next week will be scattered at best.

Each day on the forecast features partly cloudy skies, with only some fair-weather cumulus clouds over the next few days. A few taller clouds may produce some showers by Monday and Tuesday, with more widespread rain and storm chances returning toward the middle and end of the week. Afternoon highs will be well below average through the weekend but will slowly climb near normal by the middle to end of next week with more widespread rain chances possible toward next weekend.