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>> Governor Tony Evers this
week called a state of

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emergency due to storms in
Wisconsin. More than 20

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counties are under flood
warnings and it just keeps

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storming. Hardest hit
Milwaukee and southeast

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Wisconsin and farther north
toward green Bay and into

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central parts of the state.
Roads and highways have

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closed, with sandbagging
underway and more sopping

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messes in areas hard hit
last August. How unusual is

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this string of wet weather
and storms? We turn to Kurt

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Kotenberg, a meteorologist
in charge with the National

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Weather Service, joining us
from green Bay. And thanks

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a lot for being here.
>> Yeah, thank you for

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having us.
>> So what's been happening

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over the past several days
in your region?

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>> Yeah, it's just been one
round after the other.

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Pretty much everywhere
across Wisconsin. So not

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only the La Crosse area in
southwestern Wisconsin,

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they issued over 55 severe
weather warnings this week.

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The Milwaukee area has
issued over 79 severe

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weather warnings this week.
So it's just been statewide.

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And of course, we have the
terrible flooding up in

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east central and
northeastern Wisconsin.

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Long story short, so far in
the month of April, so this

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is through the 16th of
April. This doesn't even

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count the severe weather
happening Friday. The the

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National Weather Service
offices have issued 172

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severe thunderstorm
warnings, tornado warnings

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or flash flood warnings.
And to put that number in

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perspective, we average
about 22 statewide for the

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entire month of April. And
that number that we've had

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so far halfway through
April is more severe

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weather tornado or severe
thunderstorm, tornado

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warning, and more flash
flood warnings than we've

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issued in the past eight
years combined. So we are

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just way outside the box of
anything that we typically

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deal with here, not only in
April in Wisconsin, but

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almost just Wisconsin in
general, even during the

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peak summer months.
>> Boy, those those numbers

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you were sharing about the
number of, of weather

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alerts and storm warnings
and stuff that is stunning.

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>> It's wild. So, so this
past Tuesday, the 14th

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statewide, we issued 78 of
those severe warnings,

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tornado warnings, flash
flood warnings. That's the

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fifth most active day in
state history period for us

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issuing warnings. So that
includes, you know, June,

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July, May, like the fifth
most active day happened

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here in the middle of April.
And then yeah, the, the

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flooding, especially the
Wolfe River in New London,

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those are record highs. So
going back to 1922 was the

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previous record. So in any
of our lifetimes, we have

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not seen this type of
flooding across east

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central Wisconsin. And, you
know, I was working with

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someone or talking with
what the emergency managers

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there, and they said that
the Wolfe River is so high.

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There's lots of sturgeon in
the Wolfe River that

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there's actually sturgeon
in people's front yards.

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And so we're going to have
to coordinate with the DNR.

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Once this is all done and
the water starts receding,

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like there's going to be
sturgeon that need to be

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netted out of people's
front yards. Like, you know,

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just unprecedented things
in any of our lifetimes. So

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yeah, just yeah, terrible,
terrible flooding and

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terrible weather here
across Wisconsin. And again,

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just very, very much
looking forward to this

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upcoming week with it
stopping and being dry.

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Finally.
>> With the ground already

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saturated, what kind of
flooding could result from

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Friday's and storms into
this evening?

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>> Right. So, you know,
certainly in east central

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Wisconsin, you know, we're
talking about the Wolfe

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River in particular. You
know, they've had hundreds

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and hundreds of people
evacuating across towns

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such as New London and
Shiocton. So they don't

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need a single Moore drop or
additional drop of rain. So

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the Friday event is the one
positive. If there even if

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there is not really
positive. But the one good

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thing is that it's going to
be a very fast moving

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system. So once it's
through here Friday evening,

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you know, it's probably
going to be through

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Wisconsin eight, 9:00, the
worst of it, you know,

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hopefully then it should be
quiet for at least the next

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five days. So that'll be a
little different this

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moving, whereas the past
couple days has been a lot

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slower moving. But after
that, the the kind of the

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light at the end of the
tunnel is that we're not

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expecting rainfall here
the next five days. So this

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goes through probably until
Thursday of next week. So

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hopefully that'll give us a
time to dry off and really

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start the cleanup and
restoration process across

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Wisconsin.
>> And on the Wolf River.

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Do you know what its
current flood stage is or

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where it's at?
>> Yeah. So it's in major

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flood stage. It New London
and Shiocton. And this is

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record. It's over over 19ft.
Okay, so both of those

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locations have set record
heights. Again, this is

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going back to the 1900s. So
in any of our lifetimes.

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>> Do you know how many
people have been evacuated

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from various locales?
>> As of Thursday, it was

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close to 2000, and I
believe that it is exceeded

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2000 as of Friday morning.
And again, we'll see what

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happens with the Friday
once the Friday evening,

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severe weather and heavy
rain is done, what that

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number turns to on Saturday.
>> For people like you

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monitoring this and putting
out the warnings and seeing

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what's happening and seeing
what's coming, how

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frightening is that?
>> So after the tornado by

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Union Center on Tuesday,
the National Weather

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Service and La Crosse went
out Wednesday morning and

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damaged the damage survey.
And, you know, seeing the

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homes and the damage, you
know, these are our fellow

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Wisconsinites. And, you
know, just seeing, you know,

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some people like they've
lost everything. And so

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it's, it weighs on us a lot
too. And it also helps

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motivate us to really, you
know, this is why we do

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this is to, to try to help
help keep these people safe

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and protected the best that
we can. And then just

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seeing the impacts on the
community, you know, just,

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just reaffirms that what
we're doing is important.

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And we're, we're operating
24 over seven, 365 so, you

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know, whatever we can do to
help people stay safe

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weather wise is what we're
doing around the clock.