The weather seems to be cooperating, too, drying up. Rain and snowmelt this week pooled in the streets, sometimes as crews were working, disrupting repairs.

“With all this moisture, we just haven’t been able to keep up,” said La Fleur, who compared it to gardening. “If you put a handful of black dirt in a dry pot, you can pack it down nice, and it will stay. But if you fill the pot a quarter of the way with water, and then put the dirt in, you’re going to have some problems.”

Water affects streets the same way a hole punch affects paper.

In the winter, groundwater freezes under streets, expanding, causing the pavement to fracture. These cracks let in more water, resulting in another round of freezing and fracturing.

The weight of cars and trucks puts further stress on these fault lines, until it looks as if a meteor shower has made landfall.

Mark Webster, manager at Goodyear Auto Service in La Crosse, said he is accustomed to a steady trickle of pothole-related repairs each spring. But he was not prepared for this.

“We’ve had an unusual amount, a ridiculous amount — a 100- or 200-fold increase,” he said. “Every morning when we come in, there are at least three more vehicles that need new tires.”