Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 229; Flight Crew Type 8988
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Weather
We were cleared the visual approach to Runway 28. There was a rain shower on final. The FO was flying and had the runway and airfield in sight. We could see through the rain shower and were cleared to follow the preceding aircraft; which we had in sight; they were also cleared the visual. At approximately a six mile final we entered the rain shower and lost sight of the runway momentarily. The aircraft was stabilized and coupled to the approach mode of the autopilot. In the time it took to realize this fact we were in the clear and had the runway in sight. The aircraft and approach were stabilized and the rest of the approach and landing were completed uneventfully.In the future when dealing with questionable weather; I will request the instrument approach if there is any possibility of being unable to comply with visual flight rules. In addition; I will make the request early during the approach as the radios were quite congested; and I was unable to query the Controller about the preceding aircraft's ability to keep the runway in sight.
[Report narrative contained no additional information].
B737 flight crew reported losing visual contact with the runway after entering a rain shower on final during a visual approach to ATL.