It's Official: Wisconsin Sees Warmest Winter on Record

Thursday, March 14th, 2024 -- 10:01 AM

(Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio) This winter is officially the warmest on record in Wisconsin in 130 years.

According to Danielle Kaeding with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the statewide average temperature was nearly 10 degrees above normal at 28.3 degrees Fahrenheit from December through February. That compares to average temperatures seen in the previous three decades.

Steve Vavrus, director of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, said this winter was a “whopping” 2 degrees warmer than the previous record of 26.1 degrees set back in the winter of 2001-2002. He noted previous records were closer in the rankings.

“But this one was head and shoulders above the other warmest winters on record,” Vavrus said. February also marked the state’s warmest month on record with an average temperature of 31.8 degrees, more than 15 degrees above normal for the past century.

Vavrus noted two out of the three winter months were the warmest on record: December and February. Climate scientists said the warm winter is largely driven by El Niño, which depends on the warming of surface waters in the Pacific Ocean.

During the climatic shift, trade winds shift southward and areas of the northern United States become drier and warmer than normal. “But I don’t think anyone anticipated it would be this much warmer than normal,” Vavrus said.

”This was a record-breaker by far, and probably it’s the combination of a strong El Niño and long-term climate change because our winters are getting warmer.” Winter has warmed twice as fast as other seasons, according to a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.

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