Busted! Wet Winter Puts an End to the Damage of a Drought-Stricken Summer

It seems a long time ago that we were wilting under record heat and wondering what happened to the rain, as the area suffered from drought conditions during the summer of 2012.

However a rainy start to the winter in December kept the totals up even before the first snowflakes fell, and continued well into March.

"It is quite unusual to bust a drought in the winter, but we did it," explained Weather Watch 12 meterologist Mark Baden. "It was Milwaukee's third wettest winter in our history which records go back to 1871."

Well above normal precipitation has fallen this winter to bring the area back from a five inch deficit to nearly as much over the normal for the winter.

So how wet did we get? Obviously rain is liquid, but snow is also factored into the equation with a "liquid equivalent." For the 2012-13 season much of the area saw 8 to 12 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation. According to the National Weather Service, this is 3 to 5 inches above normal or 150 to 185 percent above normal. 

Here's a sampling of sites in southeastern Wisconsin, and what surplus they saw: 

Sullivan (Jefferson County) 11.34" +4.89 
Milwaukee 11.69"  +4.91 
Madison 10.24"  +4.55

Check out precipitation in other cities