Cold front will oust heat; storm drops inch and half of rain
Cooler, calmer weather is right around the corner Wednesday after a cold front comes through later Tuesday, clearing out the heat and humidity for at least a couple of days.
Severe thunderstorms ahead of the cold front hit southern Wisconsin Monday night, dropping almost an inch and a half of rain at the Dane County Regional Airport, with some street flooding reported in Monona.
In Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin, water was over parts of County Q, and power lines were down near Lancaster, while in Green Lake County north of Madison, a National Weather Service spotter reported a roof partially torn off a house near Markesan, possibly due to a tornado.
In Sauk County near La Valle, winds up to 70 miles per hour almost blew a truck off a highway.
The National Weather Service said much of the Rock River will remain in moderate flood status, but even with heavy rains Monday night, river levels are continuing to fall.
Before the cold front comes through, the high is expected to be 85 degrees Tuesday, according to Weather Central meteorologist Brian Olson.
When the wind shifts from the southwest to northwest, the temperature is expected to drop to 61 Tuesday night.
Highs should stay in the low 80s Wednesday and Thursday with a slight chance of thunderstorms Thursday afternoon.
The thermometer will climb Friday as temperatures approach 90 degrees, before more storms Friday night knock temperatures down to the low to mid 80s for the weekend, under mostly to partly sunny skies.
Monday's high in Madison was 85 degrees, three degrees above normal but 17 degrees below the record 102 degrees for July 7 set in 1936.
The 1.45 inches of rain Monday brought the July total up to 1.77 inches, almost double the normal 0.86 inches through July 7.
