How much rain will North Jersey get Wednesday after an abnormally dry September start?

The Garden State has seen a pretty dry start to September, leading to a dip in the levels at North Jersey's drinking water reservoirs.

As the remnants of "Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight" settle into the region on Wednesday, New Jerseyans should be prepared for some very welcome rain.

Here's how much rain was in the forecast as of Tuesday morning.

New Jersey residents can expect occasional rain showers beginning Wednesday afternoon, said Dominic Ramunni, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The rain is likely going to persist into the evening and potentially into Thursday morning before it starts to taper off.

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"We are not expecting a washout by any means, or anything like that, but certainly the possibility of just a few showers falling at different times later in the day," Ramunni said, with the biggest impact being "a little bit of welcome rain" after the dry stretch that we have seen over the last couple of weeks.

How much rain will fall on Wednesday?

As far as total rainfall goes, Ramunni said we can likely expect less than a quarter of an inch, with some areas remaining dry.

Beyond Wednesday and Thursday, the forecast looks to be mostly dry again through the weekend and into early next week.

"We'll take every drop I guess we can get at this point," Ramunni said. "It's not out of the question we could see a couple of showers on Friday. This weekend looks dry, even into early next week, so no big rainmakers on the radar at this point, but this time of year we'll have those swings of periods: dry, wet, warm, cool. Right now, it's pretty dry and a little bit warm out there as well."

A dry start to September

September has been an abnormally dry month so far in North Jersey, Ramunni said, adding that this ranks as one of the driest September starts on record.

Since the beginning of the month, Newark Airport has picked up less than a tenth of an inch of rain, which fell on Sept. 7.

According to the National Weather Service's month-to-date precipitation departures, every county in New Jersey aside from Sussex has seen an inch count that is more than 75% below the average.

Sussex County has picked up 0.7 inches of rain, placing it between 51% and 75% below the average.

Reservoir levels dropping

Although North Jersey's drinking water reservoirs are still above traditional levels for this time of year, the dry weather has caused them to start dipping.

According to the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission , which operates the Wanaque and Monksville reservoirs, the Wanaque Reservoir was at 73.5% of capacity on Sept. 1 and is now at 68.6%.

The Wanaque River, which feeds it, had a flow of 12.9 million gallons a day on Sept. 1 and was down to 10.6 million gallons as of Monday.

The Ramapo River's flow was at 65 million gallons on Sept. 1 and was down to 27 million gallons on Monday.

The Monksville Reservoir, a backup to the Wanaque, has remained between 101.1% and 101.8% so far this month.

The Wanaque and Monksville reservoirs provide water to more than 100 municipalities in North Jersey, from Alpine to Newark.

The three reservoirs run by Veolia along the Hackensack, including the Oradell, were at nearly 100% capacity in mid-August and were down to 83% recently, still above the average 65% capacity at this time of year. The three Veolia reservoirs supply water to 800,000 residents of Bergen and Hudson counties.

The region's drinking water reservoirs are relatively small and therefore are prone to drain quickly.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: How much rain will North Jersey get Wednesday after an abnormally dry September start?