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Heavy rains coming, more flooding possible
A large area of rain has crossed the Mississippi River in the pre-dawn hours and is sitting over western Wisconsin, where rain is definitely not needed.
The scattered showers and thunderstorms in a line from Marquette County in central Wisconsin to Lafayette County in southwest Wisconsin are slowly moving across the region and should arrive in the Madison area between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.
This first batch of precipitation could amount to up to a half-inch of rain in south central Wisconsin, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service, but it's only the beginning of what could be a very wet Thursday.
Weather Central meteorologist Brian Olson said more showers and storms will develop later this afternoon, with the possibility of some of the storms becoming severe, dropping two inches of rain or more with strong winds.
The National Weather Service also said hail up to two inches in diameter could accompany the severe storms, and damaging winds up to 70 miles per hour are expected, as well as the possibility of tornadoes developing.
A flash flood watch is in effect from noon Thursday through Friday morning for portions of east, southeast and south central Wisconsin including Dane, Columbia, Green, Marquette, Green Lake and Rock Counties.
The flooding could cause creeks, rivers and streams to rise rapidly and low-lying areas in urban settings could also flood.
Swollen streams have already closed many stretches of roads and highways in southern Wisconsin so any additional rains will add to the worry for thousands of property owners and municipal officials, still tallying the millions of dollars in losses from last weekend's torrential rains.
The rain is expected to taper off late Thursday night, with only a slight chance of showers and storms Friday and Saturday.
More rain could come Sunday, but the forecast for the early part of next week is pretty nice, with partly sunny skies and temperatures in the low-70s.
Madison's high Wednesday was 80 degrees, three degrees above normal, with .01 inches of rain recorded at Dane County Regional Airport. The rain total for June is 7.83 inches, or 6.42 inches above the normal for the month through June 11.
