Incredible Deluge Floods Minnesota and Wisconsin

 United States

Total rainfall between July 5 and July 12, 2016. Much of the heavy rain in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin fell in the span of 24 hours. Image: Dennis Mersereau

Communities north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, measured double-digit rain totals in just over a day’s time. Brainerd, Minnesota, near the epicenter of the severe storms, reported 8.78 inches of rain between the night of July 10 and the early morning of July 12. To put that kind of deluge in perspective, Brainerd only averages 7.66 inches of rain during the months of May and June combined. That total in Brainerd is the most rain they’ve ever seen in such a short period of time since the station there began keeping records back in 1908