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Rains could bring more flood woes

A weather front that will hold approaching rainstorms over the state for the next few days could create the type of flooding that caused extensive damage across central and southern Wisconsin last month, forecasters said today.

“The setup is kind of likely for it to happen,” said Chris Franks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

The Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for all of southern Wisconsin through Saturday evening.

“Another very dangerous flooding situation may be developing for southern Wisconsin,” the weather service said in a statement. “It has many similarities to the weather pattern and subsequent flooding experienced back in early June.”

Franks said it’s not clear which parts of central and southern Wisconsin will get the most rain, but weather forecasters put out the notice so local emergency management officials could prepare.

A line of storms that will dump the heaviest rain north of the Milwaukee area starting this afternoon have a decent chance of causing flooding in Sauk, Dodge, Columbia, Green Lake and Sheboygan counties because they were hit with 1 to 1.5 inches of rain Wednesday, Franks said.

Communities along the Rock River and Lake Koshkonong, where tributaries are still swelling from last month’s flooding, also could face flooding problems, Franks said.

“There’s a lot of water backed up,” the meteorologist said. “It wouldn’t take a whole lot of water to get those smaller bodies to leave their banks.”