Flood in Douglas County, Wisconsin

The Nemadji River gage, at Superior, normally between 4 and 5 feet, rose to 20 feet early in the morning of June 20th. The river reached a record stage of 27.91 feet at 100 AM on June 21st, then fell back below 20 feet about midnight the night of June 22nd. Most of the runoff, resulting in the high stages, came from excessively heavy rain on Carlton County MN flowing downstream. Many roads were flooded in Superior and surrounding areas from the flood of the river and the excessive rainfall. Many buildings at he University of Wisconsin in Superior (UWS) was flooded. Uninsured damage at UWS was $8-10 million. Damage to homes was estimated at $6.3 million. Damage to businesses was estimated at $4 million.

A stationary front over central Wisconsin early June 19th moved north into the coastal counties of northwest Wisconsin late in the day, on the 19th. Air to the south of the front was remarkably warm and humid. Weak low pressure along the front moved through the interior counties of northwest Wisconsin overnight. Some thunderstorms produced isolated wind damage and hail. Excessively heavy rain just to the northwest spread rainfalls up to 6 inches into western areas of Superior along the Lake Superior shore to west-southwest of Port Wing on the Bayfield Peninsula. Rainfalls of an inch or more were along and north of a Moose Lake MN to Hawthorne to Brule to Bayfield line. Another area of rainfalls over an inch was along and to the east of US Route 63, from Shell Lake and Spooner to Ashland. Isolated rainfalls of 3 to 4 inches occurred in the Ashland area, with a small area of heavy rain in eastern Sawyer county and southern Iron and Ashland Counties. The largest reported two-day rainfall in this latter heavy rain was at Winter WI, with 5.75 inches.