Soaking rain and strong wind on the way

 

It's been a long time since we've had a good widespread rain for all of southeast Wisconsin. Some isolated locations have had good rain here and there but we haven't a good rainfall where everyone gets a soaking for weeks. That could change Thursday into Friday with a good chance for a decent rainfall moving in. A few scattered showers are possible as early as 10 am with scattered showers through the early afternoon. The better chance for a steady light to moderate rain ramps up in late afternoon and lasts through the evening and Thursday night. 

By Friday morning there will likely be some light showers lingering. Those showers could stick around through the afternoon for at least some of us. Most of southeast Wisconsin will pick up around a full inch of rainfall which would be the most precipitation in Milwaukee since December.

We desperately need rain with the majority of southeast Wisconsin in a moderate drought and part of Kenosha County in a severe drought. Milwaukee has only seen about 4" of rainfall since the beginning of March where the average is near 9" so we are currently 5" below-average and even if we get a soaking inch of rain we will still be inches below-average. 

In addition to the rain, the wind will really pick up. As of Thursday morning it's already breezy with gusts to 25 mph. The wind will steadily increase throughout the day with peak wind gusts expected Thursday night close to 50 mph. The wind will stay strong through most of Friday and even breezy Saturday.

Download the CBS 58 Ready Weather app to track the rain and wind.