Here & Now

Kurt Kotenberg on Extreme Weather Hitting Eastern Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:
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.

Kurt Kotenberg:
Yeah, thank you for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what’s been happening over the past several days in your region?

Kurt Kotenberg:
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 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.

Frederica Freyberg:
Boy, those numbers you were sharing about the number of weather alerts and storm warnings and stuff — that is stunning.

Kurt Kotenberg:
It’s wild. 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 flooding, especially the Wolf River in Shiocton and 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 one of the emergency managers there, and they said that the Wolf River is so high — there’s lots of sturgeon in the Wolf 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.

Frederica Freyberg:
With the ground already saturated, what kind of flooding could result from Friday’s and storms into this evening?

Kurt Kotenberg:
Right. So, you know, certainly in east central Wisconsin, you know, we’re talking about the Wolf 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 more drop or additional drop of rain. So the Friday event is the one positive, if there even — there’s not really a 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, 8, 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 evening one very fast moving, whereas the past couple days has been a lot slower moving. But after that, the kind of the light at the end of the tunnel is that we’re not expecting rainfall here across the state really for 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 reparation process across Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
On the Wolf River, do you know what its current flood stage is or where it’s at?

Kurt Kotenberg:
Yeah. So it’s in major flood stage. It — New London and Shiocton, and this is record. It’s over 19ft. So both of those locations have set record heights. Again, this is going back to the 1900s. So in any of our lifetimes.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you know how many people have been evacuated from various locales?

Kurt Kotenberg:
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.

Frederica Freyberg:
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?

Kurt Kotenberg:
So after the tornado by Union Center on Tuesday, the National Weather Service in La Crosse went out Wednesday morning and did a 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 try to help keep these people safe and protected the best that we can. And then just seeing the impacts on the community, you know, just reaffirms that what we’re doing is important. And we’re operating 24/7/365 so, you know, whatever we can do to help people stay safe, weather-wise, is what we’re doing around the clock.

Frederica Freyberg:
Kurt Kotenberg out of Green Bay. Thanks so much.

Kurt Kotenberg:
Thank you for having us.