MILWAUKEE -- For the first 26 days of April, most of southeast Wisconsin had hardly seen over an inch of rain. Thanks to the last three days, we're back to wetter than average conditions, typically we see just over 3.5" for the month of April. From radar estimates over the last 48 hours, some areas have seen close to 5 inches of total precipitation.
48hr rainfall totals as of Thursday morning, April 30th
Taking a closer look at station reports over the last three days, April 27-30, the heaviest rain has fallen between South Milwaukee and Kenosha. Locally, some areas may have received much more.
3-day CoCoRaHs rain reports from April 27th-30th
The reason why we've gotten so much rain is thanks to us being right in the sweet spot of a low. Over the last three days, this low has drifted through very slowly. Air rotates around low pressure counter-clockwise and the back end continues to give us steady streams of moisture.
Usually, the back end of lows consists of dryer and colder air but our proximity to the Great Lakes and the nature of its slow movement has lead us having near-constant rain over the last 48 hours.
Surface map as of 8:30am Thursday, Apr. 30