Tuesday's severe storms left lots of damage; more strong storms possible Wednesday

The Tuesday and Tuesday night storms left a wake of hail and damage across southeast Wisconsin. Even some strong to severe thunderstorms lingered through early Wednesday morning. As of the morning commute on Wednesday most of the storms are done but showers are still lingering in some areas. 

Large hail was the biggest threat we were watching with the storms Tuesday and it certainly came to validation with hail up to baseball size being reported across parts of southeast Wisconsin. Even softball size hail was reported around Madison which is nearly 4" in diameter. 

We also likely saw at least a few tornadoes in Wisconsin Tuesday. The most impressive on radar was a storm near Sussex around 6:30 PM. One of our radar products, correlation coefficient, can show us the size of the objects the radar is picking up. All of that red on the image below is rain drops but near Sussex you see blues and greens indicating some larger debris objects like potentially shingles or branches or pieces of wood that could have been lofted into the air by a tornado. For this reason we use the term "radar confirmed tornado".

The thunderstorms dropped heavy rain as well with flooding being reported in many areas, especially in the Milwaukee metro area. Over 2" of rain was reported in northern Milwaukee County and Ozaukee County. Almost all of southeast Wisconsin saw over a half inch of rain. 

Any additional rain that we get Wednesday or Thursday would likely cause flooding issues. Strong thunderstorms are possible on Wednesday and flooding is our biggest concern and threat. With the storms themselves, some hail and strong wind will be the main threats. The tornado threat is much lower than Tuesday but an isolated storm cannot be ruled out.

After lingering showers Wednesday morning we should see some dry time from late morning into the early afternoon. Come the mid-afternoon hours Wednesday storms start to bubble up again. There is still the potential for some strong to severe storms in the late afternoon and evening hours. 

Heavy rain is likely in any storms that form with the potential for flash flooding or even river flooding increasing. By Wednesday evening rain totals could range from a quarter inch to an inch and a half. Anything over an inch, especially in short time, would likely cause flooding. Adding in a few more showers and storms on Thursday and some areas could see over 2" of rain the next 36 hours. 

Most of southeast Wisconsin is under the Level 2 Slight Risk for severe storms on Wednesday. Widespread severe storm warnings are not expected but a few isolated warnings are not out of the question. A Level 1 Marginal Risk is in place for our northern counties.

Thursday the risk for severe weather is far off to our east but Friday evening/night could see another round of strong or severe storms with a Level 1 Risk in place locally but a Level 3 Risk to our west in Iowa.

Download the CBS 58 Weather app to continue tracking another chance for storms.