Rainfall totals Tuesday morning ranged from around a tenth of an inch to half an inch across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The rain lasted through much of the morning, but skies did dry out during the afternoon.

Skies even cleared for a short amount time west and southwest of Rockford, warming temperatures across northwest Illinois into the middle and upper 70s. Further east, temperatures were slow to climb only reaching the 60s.

Rockford’s temperature remained in the 50s through early afternoon and it wasn’t until mid-afternoon when the temperature was able to reach the middle to upper 60s. Cloud cover has moved back in with a few very isolated showers developing, but those continue to move to the east and southeast.

While an isolated shower or two can’t be ruled out through the evening our skies are expected to remain mostly cloudy. Rain chances do look to return tonight, however, and could stick around through the end of the week. The rainfall tonight will be tied to an increasing low-level jet and surface warm front. The rain isn’t expected to be as widespread as what it was Tuesday morning, but a few showers and isolated thunderstorms are possible during the first half of the day Wednesday. We should then see some dry time during the afternoon under partly sunny skies. Temperatures will warm to either side of 80 degrees.

The northern and southern branches of the jet stream remain active, but split, through the middle of the week. The southern branch keeps the threat for severe thunderstorms over the southern Plains. Those storms, however, could get caught up underneath the split flow Wednesday night and Thursday. If so, the chance for rain locally would stick around through the end of the week. This is a little bit of a change from what the forecast had earlier in the week. A 20 percent chance for precipitation has been added into the forecast for Thursday and Friday.

Timing-wise the best chance for rain appears to be during the first half of the day Wednesday, then again Thursday night into Friday. Higher chances for rain return Saturday night into Sunday with the next low-pressure system.