Milwaukee, state expected to receive heavy rain, potential for severe weather this weekend

Milwaukee is expected to get up to two inches of rain over the weekend and face the potential for severe weather, as a strong storm system moves across the Great Plains and clips Wisconsin.

The National Weather Service is expecting rain to begin as early as Friday afternoon and continue through Sunday night. Saturday will bring the highest chance of severe weather, as that day is expected to be very humid and in the 70s, offering fuel for the storm.

"A very strong, a very dynamic active severe system is going to be developing in the Midwest," said Marcia Cronce, a meteorologist at the local National Weather Service office. "The plains states are going to be at the highest risk of severe storms but ... we're going to get showers and thunderstorms."

Cronce said that the NWS classifies severe weather as hail greater than one inch in diameter, gusts higher than 58 miles per hour or a tornado forming, with all possible on Saturday.

Currently, the NWS gives Milwaukee and parts of the southern half of Wisconsin as having a 15% to 29% chance of severe weather.

"The general idea is that we are in the right pattern to get severe storms, if conditions come together," Cronce said.

Come Sunday, the system is expected to bring showers and storms, but a drop in warmth and humidity will lead to less intensity, Cronce said.

The storms are affecting the central United States, with states like Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and others expected to get the brunt of it, she said.

The storms stem from two large low-pressure systems moving over the center of the country, one upper level and one lower level system. The upper level is coming from southern California and the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, while the surface level system is stemming from the Colorado Rockies, Cronce said.

"It's a big system, it's affecting the center of the country... We're just in an extension of it," Cronce said.

Wisconsin is in an active weather pattern currently and this weekend's rain will likely not be the last. As next week comes, lingering showers could bring minor precipitation on Monday, she said.

Tuesday should be relatively dry, but a weak system is forecasted to move into the area that day and into Wednesday.

The weekend's forecast comes as Milwaukee has seen frost, rain and temperatures up to 70 degrees.

Wisconsin weather radar

Wisconsin weather warnings

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee weather could bring up to two inches of rain this weekend