Community Corner

Busted! Wet Winter Puts End to Drought's Damage

It's hard to bust a drought, and even tougher to do it in winter. However, the third-wettest "dry season" put the dusty summer of 2012 to rest.

It seems long ago we were wilting under record heat and wondering what happened to the rain, as Racine County melted last summer.

But a rainy December kept the totals up even before the first snowflakes fell, and continued well into March. The area went from five inches below normal precipitation to almost five inches above.

"It is quite unusual to bust a drought in the winter, but we did it," WISN meteorologist Mark Baden said. "It was Milwaukee's third wettest winter in our history, which records go back to 1871."

Find out what's happening in Caledoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So how wet did we get? Obviously, rain is liquid, but snow is also factored into the equation with a "liquid equivalent." For the 2012-13 season, the Milwaukee area saw 8 to 12 inches of liquid-equivalent precipitation. According to the National Weather Service, this is 3 to 5 inches above normal, or 150 to 185 percent.

Here's a sampling of sites in southeastern Wisconsin, and what surplus they saw: 

Find out what's happening in Caledoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sullivan (Jefferson County) 11.34" +4.89 
Milwaukee 11.69"  +4.91 
Madison 10.24"  +4.55 
Racine  9.56"  +4.28 
Kenosha 9.10"  +3.41

Check out precipitation in other cities.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here