Flood in Wisconsin, March 12 to 28, 2007

Name: Flood in Wisconsin, March 12 to 28, 2007
Start: 2007-03-12T01:00
End: 2007-03-28T19:00
Location: Wisconsin

March 12 to 28, 2007 · NWS MKX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Rapid snowmelt of a deep and wet snowpack, along with some rain, resulted in rising water levels in many of the larger rivers in south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the period of March 11th through March 19th. Most of the rivers reached bank-full status or slightly exceeded flood stage by 3 to 8 inches, resulting in minor low-land flooding.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $25,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS MKX wrote it up.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Milwaukee, WI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 11, 12:49 PM CST, 12 hours 11 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 11, 12:49 PM CST, 12 hours 11 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
149 PM CDT SUN MAR 11 2007

.SHORT TERM...

MAIN FORECAST PROBLEM IS PRECIPITATION CHANCES LATE TONIGHT.
SHORTWAVE MOVES ACROSS MAINLY NORTHERN AND EAST CENTRAL WISCONSIN.
HOWEVER MODERATE ISENTROPIC LIFT PRESENT ACROSS THE FORECAST
REGION. ALSO AIRMASS IS INITIALLY DRY SO MUCH OF THE LIFT IS
INVOLVED WITH THE SATURATION PROCESS. GFS CONDENSATION PRESSURE
DEFICITS ARE RATHER LARGE AROUND MIDNIGHT...BUT DO FALL TO ONLY 10
MB IN THE 295 K SURFACE BY 12Z OVER THE EAST. WITH BEST DYNAMICS
NORTH...AND SATURATION PROCESS INCREASING TOWARD THE EAST...WILL
BRING HIGHER CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION IN THE NORTHEAST HALF OF THE
FORECAST AREA...WITH BEST CHANCE TOWARD SHEBOYGAN. LOCAL WRF 20 KM
MODEL SHOWS THIS THE BEST...WITH THE NAM MUCH DRIER. LOCAL 4KM NAM
WITH EXPLICIT CONVECTION IS ALSO DRIER. THEREFORE THE RATHER HIGH
GFS POPS MAY BE A BIT OVERDONE.

LOW LEVELS WARM ENOUGH FOR LIQUID...HOWEVER SURFACE TEMPS MAY BE
NEAR FREEZING...SO MAY HAVE TO INTRODUCE FREEZING RAIN CHANCE IN
SOME OF THE NORTHEAST SECTIONS.

THEN MID LEVELS DRY OUT RATHER QUICKLY MONDAY AFTERNOON. HOWEVER IF
SOME STRATUS DEVELOPS THEN LOW LEVEL INVERSION COULD KEEP LOW
CLOUDS IN MUCH OF THE DAY. GIVEN INITIAL DRY AIRMASS...WILL TRY TO
SCATTER OUT MUCH OF THE CLOUDS EXCEPT FOR CIRRUS.

STRONG ZONAL UPPER JET IS THEN EXPECTED ACROSS NORTHERN TIER OF
U.S. AND SOUTHERN CANADA. STRONG LOW MOVING ACROSS SOUTHERN CANADA
WILL CONTINUE THE WARM UP INTO TUESDAY WITH BRISK SOUTHWEST WINDS.
SNOW COVER WILL CONTINUE TO ERODE...AND WITH UPSTREAM AREAS SNOW
FREE...TEMPERATURES IN THE MID 50S ARE REASONABLE...EVEN WITH SOME
LINGERING SNOW COVER.

.LONG TERM...

TRAILING COLD FRONT WILL SET UP RATHER STRONG BAROCLINIC ZONE
ACROSS SOUTHERN WISCONSIN TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.

WHILE MID/UPPER SHORTWAVE IS LACKING...SURFACE WAVE DEVELOPS ALONG
THE FRONT WITH STRONG FROTOGENISIS AT 850 MB AND 700 MB AND
MODERATE ISENTROPIC LIFT SHOULD BRING RAIN ACROSS THE FORECAST
AREA BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING. CONDENSATION
PRESSURE DEFICITS AT 295K LEVEL ARE BELOW 10. 6G/KG OF MOISTURE
AVAILABLE AT 850 MB.

UPPER TROUGH THEN DROPS INTO THE EASTERN GREAT LAKES REGION
THURSDAY. UPPER TROUGH DEEPENS AND SLOWS MUCH MORE THAN YESTERDAYS
GFS RUN. WITH POTENTIAL OF UPPER TROUGH OVER THE GREAT LAKES
REGION...CHANCES OF PRECIPITATION WILL LINGER THURSDAY AND MAYBE
EVEN INTO FRIDAY.

HOWEVER MAIN CYCLOGENISIS WILL TAKE PLACE WELL TO THE EAST FRIDAY
AND FRIDAY NIGHT.

&&

.AVIATION...

SFC HIGH CENTERED OVER SRN LAKE MI THIS AFTERNOON
WILL CONTINUE TO SLIDE EAST AS NEXT LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM APPROACHES
FROM NW. EXPECT VFR CONDITIONS THRU EVENING WITH ONLY SCT CIRRUS.
PREVAILING SFC WINDS WILL REMAIN LIGHT S/SWLY...EXCEPT NEAR LK
MICHIGAN WHERE WINDS HAVE BACKED SELY. NEXT UPPER LEVEL SHORTWAVE TO
TRACK ACROSS NERN WISCONSIN TONIGHT...WITH THICKENING MID LEVEL
CLOUDINESS OVER TAF SITES AFTER 02Z MON. LIGHT RAIN POSSIBLE AFTER
06Z...WITH BETTER PROBABILITY OVER KMKE.  LOW LEVELS INITIALLY QUITE
DRY SO MAINLY VFR CIGS/VBYS EXPECTED...ALTHOUGH BRIEF MVFR
CONDITIONS POSSIBLE IN HEAVIER SHOWERS.

&&

.MKX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NONE.
&&

HENTZ/FOWLE

Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 11, 8:00 PM CST, 5 hours before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
900 PM CDT SUN MAR 11 2007

WIZ046-047-051-052-056>060-062>072-121000-
MARQUETTE-GREEN LAKE-FOND DU LAC-SHEBOYGAN-SAUK-COLUMBIA-DODGE-
WASHINGTON-OZAUKEE-IOWA-DANE-JEFFERSON-WAUKESHA-MILWAUKEE-
LAFAYETTE-GREEN-ROCK-WALWORTH-RACINE-KENOSHA-
900 PM CDT SUN MAR 11 2007

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EAST CENTRAL
WISCONSIN...SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

THE THREAT FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

SNOW MELT DUE TO UNSEASONABLY MILD TEMPERATURES OVER THE NEXT FEW
DAYS WILL LEAD TO WATER LEVEL RISES ON SOME AREA RIVERS AND
STREAMS. SOME FLOODING IS POSSIBLE...ESPECIALLY IN THOSE AREAS
MOST PRONE TO FLOODING IN THE SPRING. CHECK OUT OUR ADVANCED
HYDROLOGIC PREDICTION SERVICE WEB SITE FOR DETAILS.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED.

LMZ643>646-665-121000-
SHEBOYGAN TO PORT WASHINGTON-
PORT WASHINGTON TO NORTH POINT LIGHTHOUSE-
NORTH POINT LIGHTHOUSE TO WIND POINT-
WIND POINT TO WINTHROP HARBOR ILLINOIS-
WISCONSIN ADJACENT OPEN WATERS OF LAKE MICHIGAN TO MID LAKE-
900 PM CDT SUN MAR 11 2007

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF LAKE MICHIGAN.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CONDITIONS MAY BE MET WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND
THURSDAY.

MBK
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/MKX

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Kenosha

When: March 12, 1:00 AM CST to March 28, 7:00 PM CST
Where: Kenosha County, Wheatland to Wilmot
Cause: Heavy Rain / Snow Melt
Property damage: $25,000
Reported by: Official NWS Observations
Coordinates: 42.600, -88.200

The Fox River at New Munster (Kenosha Co.) went more than 2 feet above flood stage, and remained above flood stage for the longest period of time (compared to other rivers in south-central and southeast Wisconsin) - from March 12th through March 29th. Low-land river flooding along the Fox River in western Kensoha County resulted in some minor damage to contents in basements of homes and some soil erosion. At the New Munster gage site, the river crested at 12.34 feet at 0245CST on March 15th, 2.34 inches over flood stage.

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Wisconsin in 2007 Every state in 2007 This day in weather history Warnings in Wisconsin, March 2007

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 22485.