Much of southern Wisconsin now in ‘severe’ drought

Much of southern Wisconsin is now in a severe drought. The latest U.S. drought map shows that roughly the southern third of the state has been upgraded from a moderate to a severe drought. Moderate drought conditions now have been expanded northward to include almost all of Marquette, Green Lake, Fond du Lac and Sauk counties. And abnormally dry conditions now extend across central Wisconsin up to Wisconsin Rapids and just south of Waupaca.

And Ed Townsend, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, says there’s only a chance of rain this weekend for hard hit southern Wisconsin. “We have an upper trough that will be moving across northern and central Wisconsin giving us increased chances for showers and thunderstorms,” he says. “However the best forcing and lift looks to be more north of us, in Northern Wisconsin and Central Wisconsin. Which means while southern Wisconsin will be in the running for some scattered thunderstorms in the peak heating times on Saturday, most of it looks to be toward the north.”

Townsend says the average rainfall deficit for the severe drought region in southern Wisconsin is around five inches for the year. Governor Scott Walker has declared a state of emergency in 42 counties in central and southern Wisconsin due to the drought.