Final flooding rainfall numbers, waterfall pictures, upcoming rain/storms?

Some final tallies and damage articles from the southern part of Wisconsin.

I found a map of total rainfall from the system that brought several days of torrential rain to southern Wisconsin, from the National Weather Service (NWS) in Milwaukee (to the right).

My blogger friend, Scout, in Waukesha County reports 7.51" from two days. More information can be found on his weather blog and site WeatherScout.

Additionally, thanks to Grinder for posting a comment in my previous post that he measured 9.95" in Columbus, WI.

Several articles with pictures and videos.

Homes washed away at Lake Delton - WTMJ 4, Milwaukee.

Rain-Swollen Lake Delton Floods, Destroying Homes & Highways - Channel 3000, Madison.

Governor Doyle: State of Emergency in 30 Counties - WTMJ 4, Milwaukee.

Roller coaster temperatures on the Bayfield Peninsula.

I created this graph (to the left) from my measured temperature data - solid red and blue lines, as well as climatological average high and low temperatures shown in dashed lines.

Sunday (6/1) was the first time I reached 80 degrees this year, while Saturday (6/7) has been the hottest so far.

The 50's this last week were chilly.

Average rainfall in my rain gauge.

This chart (to the right) shows my rainfall data from the last 15 days, the same amount of time as the temperature chart (above).

The total precipitation shown in the chart is 2.07", nothing compared to what southern Wisconsin has been recording.

Unless more rains and/or floods occur across southern Wisconsin, this is the last time I will post on this topic. My two previous posts list information and graphics as the situation developed since Saturday:

1) Severe storms yesterday, flooding today across the south.
2) Rain continues across the south.

Hiking, a waterfall, and an imbasela (bonus).

It was so nice this weekend, that I grabbed my friend and went hiking on an exploratory mission to find a waterfall. I was paging through a book at the bookstore in town and stumbled upon a waterfall that I had not previously heard about. Well, of course, conquer I must!!

Saturday was hot and humid (83 degrees with a dew point in the low 60s) so we decided to postpone the adventure until Sunday, which luckily provided perfect weather - mostly cloudy and drier with a temperature of 70.

I was able to only find rough directions and a map (that now seems a little out-of-date), and was ready for anything. I forgot how thick the mosquitoes can be and while I'm quite familiar with both vampiric species, I was caught off-guard by their sheer numbers. Stopping every few minutes to pick ticks off your pants gets tiring quickly.

So without further ado, two videos and then some pictures.

From behind the waterfall


Panoramic View


The trailhead access was a short drive down a beautiful one lane dirt road (to the right).

The trailhead wasn't labeled on the roadside as well as I expected -- it wasn't labeled at all. The road was a dead-end and it was therefore relatively easy to figure which was the path we wanted.

The image of the road and the trees looks idyllic, but doesn't convey the buzzing and humming of winged blood-sucking demons. At least they don't carry malaria, been there & experienced that... twice.

The waterfall was unmarked on the map but easy to find by following the sounds from the main path.

Unfortunately, it looks like a tree or two washed to the lip of the waterfall in the heavy downpours three days previous. I recorded 0.91" of rain and this waterfall isn't very far away from my house, so this watershed probably experienced similar rainfall amounts.

A beautiful location, I'd love to go back in the autumn, but there are many places up here on my fall-color visitation list.


Another feature not listed on the map was a cemetery not very far from the trailhead... a bit unexpected.

Off the one lane dirt-road, in the middle of the quiet forest, was a series of wooden crosses. A sign along the road informed any passerby (or visitors) that this cemetery was used from 1902 to 1915 and is the resting place of 23 individuals, of whom at least 7 were infants.

The markers still remain because the cemetery has been restored twice since 1915.


The cemetery was extremely peaceful, and I have to say that if I were to rank cemeteries that I've visited, this is my favorite.

It's exactly the sort of place I'd like to be buried, or my cremains interred, only I didn't know this is what I wanted until I experienced such a place.

I'll fully admit that I plan on returning to the cemetery simply to re-experience the peace and the quiet of the forest at this location.



Looking ahead.

Kudos to those who have stuck with my post this far.

Concern is mounting in NWS Offices across the western Great Lakes and the Upper Midwest for later in the week - mainly Thursday and Friday.

A large storm system will possibly make a repeat performance, just as the last one did on Saturday and Sunday.

This map (to the right), from the HPC, shows how much precipitation the computer models think will fall in the next five days, with almost all the rain across Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin falling from Thursday's system. Three to four more inches of rain are possible across areas that scarcely need another drop.

Strong storms are also a possibility around Thursday.

The SPC has already outlined most of Wisconsin (to the left) in a severe risk outlook for Thursday and Thursday night (6/12).

This is four days away so will likely be tweaked in many directions, but for a threat to be recognized four days in advance suggests this is something that should be watched closely. Any storms that do develop could produce more torrential rain with even higher rainfall totals.