Much-anticipated rain is expected to start falling in parts of Alabama today, and it could add up to a little more than what forecasters were originally expecting.

The National Weather Service said “a good soaker” will be possible over the next few days in parts of Alabama, which haven’t seen meaningful rain in weeks now.

While any rain is good, the weather service continued to caution that it won’t be enough to end Alabama’s ongoing drought.

Alabama’s drought conditions will be updated later this morning with the release of this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report. Last Thursday’s report showed Level 3 out of 4 drought — or extreme drought — greatly expanding across parts of the state.

But a cold front is coming, and it will usher in much-needed rainfall. The rain could start in north Alabama later today or tonight and spread through the state overnight and into Friday.

The weather service said the best rain chances will actually come behind the front with this system.

No severe weather is expected, according to forecasters, and there likely won’t be any thunder, either.

The three-day precipitation outlook from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center shows that parts of central and south Alabama could get up to an inch and maybe more over the weekend. Other parts of the state may not get as much but could get at least some rain, however. (That outlook is at the top of this post.)

Several additional weather disturbances could move through the region over the weekend, keeping rain chances in the forecast for most of the state.

Dry weather could return by the first part of next week, but then there’s the potential for another system to bring rain — it’s unclear how much — on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Computer models are diverging greatly on what could happen, but there is an outside chance of beneficial rain for some parts of the state next week.

“So (if) you have some lucky rabbit’s foot for rain, need to wash your car, do a little dance,” the weather service said in a forecast discussion on Friday. “Now is the time to do that because we could really use this rain.”