A giant Powerball jackpot is expected to hit Wednesday evening, awarding a pretty hefty prize of $317 million to a very lucky winner, MSN reported.

It's been a while since the Powerball lottery has ended up offering another one of its popular record-breaking jackpots. In fact, it's been almost a year since the jackpot soared past $300 million. However, after a slight drought, Powerball is back in good form with a large pot ready for claiming.

Powerball announced the $317 million prize on its official website, which has a cash value of $220.6 million. It's a jackpot prize that has been rolling in the pot since early in December.

As for the winning numbers, the draw on Jan. 31 yielded 5-11-16-26-50-34 and so far no winner has come forward to claim the prize.

The $317 will be the 22nd largest in the history of the country if counted along with Mega Millions, and the 11st largest prize in Powerball history.

It ranks alongside the $590.5 million in May 2013 and the $648 million in December 2013, as well as the $425.3 million in February 2014, which happened to be the last major Powerball jackpot and claimed by B. Raymond Buxton of Northern California, according to KTLA.

Buxton won the jackpot with a single Quick Pick ticket worth $2. He claimed his prize on April Fool's Day.

Lottery officials claimed that there was no real reason for the lull in jackpot prize. The trend is inherently random and is sometimes affected by fewer ticket sales that are sometimes affected by the fiscal year, according to IBTimes.

Since the announcement of the $317 million jackpot on Wednesday however, tickets have been selling at a rate of around 1,900 tickets per minute as of noon, according to PR News Wire. Also, in total, Powerball has sold nearly $47 million worth of tickets since the jackpot run began in early December. Odds of winning have even been calculated at about 1 in 175,223,510.

Given the sudden surge in sales, it's likely to affect Powerball's continued rise in jackpot figures, especially if no one ends up claiming Wednesday's pot.

For those who want to watch the drawing on Wednesday, a live coverage of the event will be showcased by various television stations in up to 44 states. It will begin on 10:59 p.m ET. A live stream is also available on MLive.

Powerball draws numbers every Wednesday and Saturday night at 10:59 p.m. ET, with draw sales being cut off at least an hour before the draw begins. The jackpot is won by matching five white balls in any order and the red Powerball.