Cristobal Heading Toward Minnesota, Wisconsin

UNDATED -- Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota are in the path of tropical depression Cristobal. It crashed ashore down in Louisiana Sunday and should make its way to Wisconsin by Wednesday.

Minnesota State Climatologist Pete Boulay says this is a very rare occurrence for us.

The LaCrosse National Weather Service plotted all the past systems going back to 1850 and this one, if it holds the same path, would be the farthest west we've seen of any tropical system, of course, it won't be tropical by the time it gets to Wisconsin.

There are three other occupancies where remnants of a tropical system dropped a lot of rain on Minnesota, the Great Galveston Hurricane back in September of 1900, Hurricane Rita in September of 2005, and Tropical Storm Erin in August of 2007 when parts of southeastern Minnesota got 10-20 inches of rain over a 24 to 36 hour period.

Houston and Winona counties in Minnesota are included in a Flash Flood Watch for Tuesday.

Boulay says here in central Minnesota our rain this week will be a combination of a cold system to our northwest and the tropical system to our east.