After a record-breaking wet week more flooding and severe storms are possible Friday evening
This week has seen record-breaking rain across southeast Wisconsin. In Milwaukee the rainfall this week has pushed an already wet April up over 8" of rain for the month making it the wettest April on record. Average rainfall for the entire month of April is 3.86" and the old record for the wettest April on record was over ten years ago in 2013 when we saw 7.38" of rain.
From Sunday to Thursday Milwaukee picked up over 3.50" of rainfall. That is a lot of rain much it's actually low on our list of rainfall reports since Sunday. Flooding rains have amounted to almost 7" in areas like West Allis and Menomonee Falls. Reports over 4" range from Fond du Lac to Waukesha to Jackson and River Hills. Almost all of southeast Wisconsin has seen at least 3" of rain over the last five days.
Unfortunately, more rain is on the way. Strong to severe storms are likely from late Friday afternoon through the late evening hours. And even after the strongest storms end, some moderate steady rain is likely through Saturday morning. This will likely lead to more flooding across southeast Wisconsin. Rain totals look to rise over a half inch for our entire area with most seeing between 0.50-1.50" of rain. Those that get strong storms or multiple storms over the same area could see 2" or more of new rainfall.
After a foggy start to Friday we stay dry through the early afternoon hours. By around 3 or 4 PM some storms are starting to develop, mostly to our west. Any individual storms that move into southeast Wisconsin would have a large hail and strong tornado threat. As those storms form into broken lines the threats become damaging wind and brief tornadoes. The severe storm threat should end by 11 PM.
A Level 3 Enhanced Risk for severe weather is in place for most of western Wisconsin but also now includes our western and southern counties locally. Our eastern counties are under a Level 2 Slight Risk as storms may weaken slightly as they get closer to Lake Michigan.
Flash flooding will be the main threat with any storms that develop with any rain over a half inch leading to flooding. Tornadoes and damaging wind will be the biggest threats overall with any severe storms. Some hail is also possible, but the threat for large hail is better in western Wisconsin.
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