diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 2180f57..48c12ec 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@
 History
 =======
 
-.. current developments
+Latest
+------
+
+* Add :py:func:`rhg_compute_tools.kubernetes.wait` function to block until cluster reaches
+  the requested number of workers, optionally with a tqdm pbar.
 
 v0.2.3
 ------
diff --git a/requirements_dev.txt b/requirements_dev.txt
index bd4023d..0049682 100644
--- a/requirements_dev.txt
+++ b/requirements_dev.txt
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ pytest-cov
 pytest-runner
 pytest-mock
 twine
+tqdm
diff --git a/rhg_compute_tools/kubernetes.py b/rhg_compute_tools/kubernetes.py
index 77f5f64..d08963c 100644
--- a/rhg_compute_tools/kubernetes.py
+++ b/rhg_compute_tools/kubernetes.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 """Tools for interacting with kubernetes."""
 
 import os
+import time
 import socket
 import traceback as tb
 import warnings
@@ -341,3 +342,63 @@ def get_micro_cluster(*args, **kwargs):
     """
 
     return get_cluster(*args, scaling_factor=(0.97 / 1.75), **kwargs)
+
+
+def wait(cluster, min_workers=None, pbar=True, pbar_kwargs=None):
+    """
+    Block execution while a cluster scales to the requested number of workers
+    
+    Note that this function does not currently work on dask gateway clusters
+    
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    cluster : dask_kubernetes.KubeCluster
+        Scalable dask cluster object with ``requested`` and ``scheduler``
+        attributes. These attributes are used to determine how many
+        workers have been requested and how many are currently available.
+    min_workers : int, optional
+        Number of workers to wait for before returning. Default is the
+        total number of requested workers. This argument can be used to
+        set a minimum acceptable number, even if the total requested is
+        higher. This may be important for adaptive clusters, where the
+        number requested may change during the function's execution.
+    pbar : bool, optional
+        If true, displays a tqdm progress bar to track the worker's
+        spinup. Note that while this function is running, any dask
+        interactive widgets will not update, so the worker count on
+        the widget may be inaccurate. The progress bar displayed by
+        this function will reflect the actual worker count.
+    pbar_kwargs : dict, optional
+        Optional additional keyword arguments to pass to
+        :py:func:`tqdm.auto.tqdm` (default ``{}``).
+    """
+
+    if min_workers is None:
+        # don't race the cluster
+        time.sleep(0.5)
+        min_workers = len(cluster.requested)
+        
+    if pbar_kwargs is None:
+        pbar_kwargs = {}
+
+    if pbar:
+        from tqdm.auto import tqdm
+        bar = tqdm(total=min_workers, **pbar_kwargs)
+
+    while True:
+        num_workers = len(cluster.scheduler.workers)
+        
+        # check to see if the request has decreased, e.g. in an adaptive cluster
+        min_workers = min(min_workers, len(cluster.requested))
+
+        if pbar:
+            bar.n = num_workers
+            bar.refresh()
+
+        if num_workers >= min_workers:
+            if pbar:            
+                bar.close()
+
+            break
+
+        time.sleep(0.5)