Our dry May has suddenly turned soggy, and another round of storms will bring more rain and the potential for low-level flooding on streets and along rivers and creeks to the Twin Cities and southern and western Minnesota today, the National Weather Service said.

A large area of showers and thunderstorms moving into Minnesota from Iowa and Nebraska will bring steady rain throughout the morning and into the afternoon, said Karen Trammell, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

The Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch until 4 p.m. today for Le Sueur, Rice, Goodhue, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Waseca, Steele and Martin counties in south central Minnesota. More than 2 to 3 inches of rain could fall in the watch area on top of the 1 to 2 inches of rain that fell Wednesday, the weather service said.

In Plymouth, about 1,000 trees were damaged or uprooted on public land, and an unknown number on private property in Wednesday's storm. The city said today it is extending the hours of its yard waste site, where residents should take tree and brush waste, keeping gates open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today through Monday.

Wet roads had little impact on today's morning rush hour in the Twin Cities, said Tom Heininger of the Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville.

The rain is helping wipe out a precipitation deficit for the month.

Until Wednesday, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was more than 1.5 inches below average for the month. As of 7 p.m. Wednesday, the airport had recorded .15 inches, but official totals will not be availabe until later this morning, Trammell said.

The storms dropped more than an inch of rain in several places, including 1.20 inches at the St. Paul Downtown Airport, 1.19 inches in Forest Lake, 1.17 inches in Lino Lakes, 1.01 inches in Stillwater, 1.28 inches in Fridley, 1.53 inches in Zumbrota, Minn. and 1.74 inches in Faribault. More than 2 inches fell in Baldwin, Wis., the weather service said.

As much as one-half inch of rain could pelt the area today, the weather service said.

Today's high temperature will be about 61, with a west northwest wind between 5 and 15 miles per hour.

After today's rain, more wet weather is ahead, Trammell said. Showers and a few thunderstorms are forecast for Friday night into Saturday, but nothing severe is expected. Sunday and Monday should be dry before more rain moves in Monday night into Tuesday.

Western Wisconsin is looking at severe thunderstorms with the risk of hail and damaging winds later today.

On Wednesday, storms bringing strong winds and heavy winds blew through the metro area.

It was sometime after Wednesday's tornado warning, the downpour and then the shock of being trapped in a minivan covered with construction-trailer debris that the thought came back to Lori Comp:

"Maybe I should've stopped and gotten a sandwich."

The North Branch woman had decided to forgo the sandwich after leaving a Plymouth medical office building in hopes of beating the storm home.

The sky was white with rain and Comp was stopped at Hwy. 55 and Northwest Blvd. in Plymouth when the trailer blew on top of the van. A construction worker who'd been in the trailer helped pull her to safety.

Those who may have forgotten about severe spring weather got a rude reminder Wednesday as heavy rains, high winds and large hail caused minor damage across south-central and east-central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.