Flash Flood — Marquette, Wisconsin

2008-06-07 · near Endeavor, Marquette, Wisconsin

$8.8M

Property damage

Event narrative

Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding from the Endeavor area to the Montello area. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. One hundred homes were affected with at least some flooding. Two hundred homes had minor damage. Eighty-five homes had major damage, and one home was destroyed (total of 6 million for all home property losses). Fifty businesses had minor damage, 10 had major damage, and 1 was destroyed (total of 750 thousand for all business property losses). Crops losses were estimated at 2 million. Public sector damage was about $2 million. There were several roads and bridges that sustained damage.

Wider weather episode

A slow-moving surface boundary, nearly parallel with the mid-level flow affected southern Wisconsin during the period of June 7th through June 9th. A strengthening low-level jet and strong moisture advection produced several rounds of thunderstorms during the period in the vicinity of this boundary. The atmosphere was very moist with precipitable water values around 2 inches. Low to mid-level wind flow supported training of flood-producing thunderstorms. There was sufficient vertical wind shear to allow for supercell development that resulted in 10 tornadoes spinning up in south-central and southeast Wisconsin on June 7th. A weak cool front pushed through southern Wisconsin late on the 8th/early on the 9th, finally ending the heavy rainfall.

During the evening of June 7th, several roads near STH 89 south of Columbus were washed out. STH 16 east of Columbus closed on June 8th due to high waters. A state-of-emergency was declared in Milwaukee County the evening of June 7th due to widespread flash flooding, and Milwaukee Mitchell Field was close for several hours due to high water levels.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.6795, -89.4983)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 120796. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.