Rainfall totals Monday among Milwaukee area's highest of past decade
What the top rains have been since 2013 in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE - With reports of as much as 6 inches of rainfall on Monday, it's no wonder this was the biggest rain of the year for southeast Wisconsin.
The Aug. 14 totals surpass the Feb. 27 rainfall, which was the previous contender.
Comparing rain gauge data to radar estimates, it's quite similar and validates the widespread totals ranging from 1.5 inches to 6 inches. But if you go over Lake Michigan, we might have just missed out on an all-time highest rain.
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Radar estimated rainfall totals from Monday, Aug. 14
Radar estimates put a blotch of over 12 inches of rainfall just east of Kenosha. If that had happened over Milwaukee, it would have smashed the old all-time record for one-day rainfall of 6.81 inches on Aug. 6, 1986.
Due to no rain gauges in the area and being over the lake, we'll never know for sure how much fell at the surface of Lake Michigan. What we do know is the rain that fell at Mitchell International Airport put Monday, Aug. 14 is in the Top 10 highest totals of the last 10 years.
READ MORE: Rainfall totals for southeast Wisconsin on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023
Interestingly, five of the Top 10 biggest rains in the past 10 years have occurred in August with the biggest being on Aug. 2, 2020. Two-inch rains historically aren't all that rare, but with how dry we've been the past two years, it's definitely a welcome change to the drought most of the state has been used to.
So officially, Monday's rain is in the Top 10 biggest rains of the past 10 years – but doesn't even crack the Top 100 rains of all time in the Milwaukee area.