Western and central Wisconsin will see two separate rounds of storms on Tuesday, before a third severe weather system passes through the state and impacts Milwaukee in the evening.

The National Weather Service is forecasting that third storm system to reach Milwaukee and has the potential to bring damaging wind gusts over 74 mph, hail and possibly tornadoes. Earlier storms in the day are not expected to affect Milwaukee but will track from western Wisconsin and travel east of the Madison area.

“Milwaukee might not have any active weather until the main line of storms come through this evening,” said Marcia Cronce, a meteorologist at the Milwaukee-Sullivan office of the NWS. “Well inland areas, Madison, have a chance for basically three rounds of thunderstorms today.”

The evening storms are expected to develop as individual storms around 6 to 8 p.m. west of Madison before they “race” towards Milwaukee and reach shoreline counties around 9 to 10 p.m.

As the system develops, the individual storms —which bring the chance of tornadoes — will congeal into a line system and bring high winds.

The midday round of storms is expected to reach just east of Madison and occur between noon and 3 p.m.

“Then the evening, that’s when the big show is expected,” she said. “If they’re strong enough, they could do that high-end damage.”

Currently, Milwaukee is at a three out of five risk rating for severe weather, a bump from yesterday’s two out of five rating. The southwest corner of Wisconsin has the highest risk, at a four out of five rating.

In that corner of the state, near Mineral Point and Lone Rock, the NWS rates their chances of a tornado between 15 to 29%.

“The biggest chance for the strongest storms is well to (the) west, like southwest of Madison, so Milwaukee might miss out on the really good stuff,” Cronce said.

People should be prepared for the evening storm, which brings the highest chance of severe weather, she said.

Cronce emphasized that it’s important to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings — especially with the storm arriving at night in Milwaukee — and make various preparations like putting away lawn furniture or charging battery packs ahead of possible power outages.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee was in a dense fog advisory until 10 a.m. this morning, with visibility at one quarter mile or less in dense fog, the NWS’s warning said. A marine dense fog advisory for parts of Lake Michigan was also in effect until 7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Severe weather in Milwaukee expected this evening with strong damaging winds