News
After dry spell, Wisconsin gets heavy weekend rain
Wisconsin farmers received some much-needed rain over the past four days, but some farmers got more than they immediately needed.
Crawford County in Southwestern Wisconsin’s driftless area was one area categorized by the National Weather Service as having severe drought just over a week ago and received a lot of rain Friday night. Jody Riley farms on a ridge southeast of Gays Mills. “Four and a half is what we got. We had had about an inch and a half, inch and six-tenths I don’t know, a week or eight days before that but yeah, we got about four and a half there on Friday night.”
Riley tells Brownfield a nearby farmer friend had a lot more rain. “Over there by Seneca, which is twelve miles to the west of us, and over by Mt. Sterling, I heard they got (more.) A friend of mine was just here this morning from Mt. Sterling. He said they got upwards of a foot over that way.”
Riley says the first inch and six-tenths of rain he received about a week and a half ago saved his crops, and now they look fantastic. The Riley family has about 140 tillable acres with 45 in corn, 20 in newly seeded oats, with the rest alfalfa hay. He says that the first crop was fantastic, but the second crop was looking dry and he expects to take it down as soon as fields dry out.
Riley reports no water damage, but there was some flash flooding in the county. A flood warning will expire for the Kickapoo River Monday afternoon in Gays Mills. The National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service predicts the Kickapoo River at nearby Soldiers Grove will crest at around 11 feet Monday afternoon before dropping back down to around six feet by Thursday.
