>> Governor Tony Evers this week called a state of
emergency due to storms in Wisconsin. More than 20
counties are under flood warnings and it just keeps
storming. Hardest hit Milwaukee and southeast
Wisconsin and farther north toward green Bay and into
central parts of the state. Roads and highways have
closed, with sandbagging underway and more sopping
messes in areas hard hit last August. How unusual is
this string of wet weather and storms? We turn to Kurt
Kotenberg, a meteorologist in charge with the National
Weather Service, joining us from green Bay. And thanks
a lot for being here. >> Yeah, thank you for
having us. >> So what's been happening
over the past several days in your region?
>> Yeah, it's just been one round after the other.
Pretty much everywhere across Wisconsin. So not
only the La Crosse area in southwestern Wisconsin,
they issued over 55 severe weather warnings this week.
The Milwaukee area has issued over 79 severe
weather warnings this week. So it's just been statewide.
And of course, we have the terrible flooding up in
east central and northeastern Wisconsin.
Long story short, so far in the month of April, so this
is through the 16th of April. This doesn't even
count the severe weather happening Friday. The the
National Weather Service offices have issued 172
severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings
or flash flood warnings. And to put that number in
perspective, we average about 22 statewide for the
entire month of April. And that number that we've had
so far halfway through April is more severe
weather tornado or severe thunderstorm, tornado
warning, and more flash flood warnings than we've
issued in the past eight years combined. So we are
just way outside the box of anything that we typically
deal with here, not only in April in Wisconsin, but
almost just Wisconsin in general, even during the
peak summer months. >> Boy, those those numbers
you were sharing about the number of, of weather
alerts and storm warnings and stuff that is stunning.
>> It's wild. So, so this past Tuesday, the 14th
statewide, we issued 78 of those severe warnings,
tornado warnings, flash flood warnings. That's the
fifth most active day in state history period for us
issuing warnings. So that includes, you know, June,
July, May, like the fifth most active day happened
here in the middle of April. And then yeah, the, the
flooding, especially the Wolfe River in New London,
those are record highs. So going back to 1922 was the
previous record. So in any of our lifetimes, we have
not seen this type of flooding across east
central Wisconsin. And, you know, I was working with
someone or talking with what the emergency managers
there, and they said that the Wolfe River is so high.
There's lots of sturgeon in the Wolfe River that
there's actually sturgeon in people's front yards.
And so we're going to have to coordinate with the DNR.
Once this is all done and the water starts receding,
like there's going to be sturgeon that need to be
netted out of people's front yards. Like, you know,
just unprecedented things in any of our lifetimes. So
yeah, just yeah, terrible, terrible flooding and
terrible weather here across Wisconsin. And again,
just very, very much looking forward to this
upcoming week with it stopping and being dry.
Finally. >> With the ground already
saturated, what kind of flooding could result from
Friday's and storms into this evening?
>> Right. So, you know, certainly in east central
Wisconsin, you know, we're talking about the Wolfe
River in particular. You know, they've had hundreds
and hundreds of people evacuating across towns
such as New London and Shiocton. So they don't
need a single Moore drop or additional drop of rain. So
the Friday event is the one positive. If there even if
there is not really positive. But the one good
thing is that it's going to be a very fast moving
system. So once it's through here Friday evening,
you know, it's probably going to be through
Wisconsin eight, 9:00, the worst of it, you know,
hopefully then it should be quiet for at least the next
five days. So that'll be a little different this
moving, whereas the past couple days has been a lot
slower moving. But after that, the the kind of the
light at the end of the tunnel is that we're not
expecting rainfall here the next five days. So this
goes through probably until Thursday of next week. So
hopefully that'll give us a time to dry off and really
start the cleanup and restoration process across
Wisconsin. >> And on the Wolf River.
Do you know what its current flood stage is or
where it's at? >> Yeah. So it's in major
flood stage. It New London and Shiocton. And this is
record. It's over over 19ft. Okay, so both of those
locations have set record heights. Again, this is
going back to the 1900s. So in any of our lifetimes.
>> Do you know how many people have been evacuated
from various locales? >> As of Thursday, it was
close to 2000, and I believe that it is exceeded
2000 as of Friday morning. And again, we'll see what
happens with the Friday once the Friday evening,
severe weather and heavy rain is done, what that
number turns to on Saturday. >> For people like you
monitoring this and putting out the warnings and seeing
what's happening and seeing what's coming, how
frightening is that? >> So after the tornado by
Union Center on Tuesday, the National Weather
Service and La Crosse went out Wednesday morning and
damaged the damage survey. And, you know, seeing the
homes and the damage, you know, these are our fellow
Wisconsinites. And, you know, just seeing, you know,
some people like they've lost everything. And so
it's, it weighs on us a lot too. And it also helps
motivate us to really, you know, this is why we do
this is to, to try to help help keep these people safe
and protected the best that we can. And then just
seeing the impacts on the community, you know, just,
just reaffirms that what we're doing is important.
And we're, we're operating 24 over seven, 365 so, you
know, whatever we can do to help people stay safe
weather wise is what we're doing around the clock.