The hottest & coldest days in Wisconsin history

Wisconsin’s annual average temperatures are fairly temperate, but the state’s hottest and coldest days in history are more severe than you may have thought.

Wisconsinites are blessed with mostly temperate weather. We typically experience four distinct seasons—something that unfortunately can’t be said for other states, like California, where warm weather reigns supreme—with clear, defined weather changes. It’s what makes us look forward to each equinox and solstice so much; autumn’s first cool breeze and summer’s first truly warm day are highlights of every single year. That said, these seasons sometimes come with staggeringly warm or cold days.

Before we can break down wild highs and lows, though, we first need to establish what average temperatures in Wisconsin are like. According to WorldClimate.com, the state’s annual average high temperature sits at 55 degrees, while its average low is 40. Of course, the warmest and coldest temperatures will come from summer and winter, respectively, so we need to look at the state’s highest and lowest averages for these months. WorldClimate.com shows July has the warmest average at 79 degrees, while January has the lowest average at 30 degrees. Surprised?

If these numbers look tame, don’t worry. The following hottest and coldest days in Wisconsin history will leave you chilled to the bone (and subsequently defrosted). 

1. Wisconsin’s Hottest Day in History: July 13, 1936

It’s been nearly 90 years since Wisconsin’s hottest day, which saw the Wisconsin Dells area of the state hit a sweltering 114 degrees—a temperature that’s rare even in Southern states (via the National Weather Service). This wasn’t an isolated day, either. A massive heatwave hit Wisconsin, with some parts of the state staying above 100 degrees for several days at a time. Other parts stayed over 90 degrees for more than a week, which isn’t common for many parts of the state. In fact, other regional record-breaking highs from this day include 107 degrees in Appleton, 107 degrees in Cumberland, 111 in Fond du Lac, 112 in Hazelhurst, and many more, according to Plantmaps.com.

2. Wisconsin’s Coldest Day in History: February 2 & 4, 1996

Wisconsin’s coldest day happened many, many moons after its warmest day, not plunging the state into frigid terror until 1996. According to the National Weather Service, on February 2 and 4 of that year, Couderay, located in Sawyer County, experienced 55-degree weather, making it nearly impossible to spend time outdoors.

Curious what that temperature feels like? One Redditor on the r/meteorology Subreddit wrote that they spent time in -60-degree weather once and that “it’s like another world. [M]aterials behave differently (everything breaks), sound travels differently, [and] footsteps in the snow are deafeningly loud.” Unfortunately for Couderay residents, this was their reality for a day. 

Photo courtesy of Tom Kelly/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

3. Wisconsin’s Second-Hottest Day in History: July 21, 1901

Not counting the couple of days surrounding the July 13, 1936, heatwave (because only citing one week in 1936 would make a boring list), the second-hottest day in Wisconsin history is July 21, 1901. According to Plantmaps.com, the small town of Brodhead in the southern part of the state hit a staggering 111 degrees on this day, while the larger, riverside Fort Atkinson hit its highest temperature to date at 103 degrees the same day. Now, this was before the invention of modern air conditioners, which wouldn’t first be conceived until the following year, meaning Wisconsinites everywhere were left a tad sweaty. 

4. Wisconsin’s Second-Coldest Day in History: January 30, 1951

Record lows are harder to come by than record highs, but the Wisconsin State Climatology Office located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has archival data for many of the state’s biggest cities, giving us good insight into the state’s coldest days. Following Couderay’s -55 degrees on the coldest-days list is Eau Claire’s -45-degree day and Madison’s -37-degree day on January 30, 1951. The temperatures were so low that local news outlets like WQOW.com recount that fateful ‘51 day as a reason to be thankful that temps in recent years have only dipped to about -10. We’re not sure that’s very reassuring, but it is interesting to see how temperatures have changed in Eau Claire and Madison over the years.

Photo courtesy of Jereme Rauckman/CC BY 2.0.

5. Wisconsin’s Third-Hottest Day in History: July 13, 1995 & July 9, 1937

The third-hottest day in Wisconsin history is a tie between record highs in two different Wisconsin cities. On July 13, 1995, the small village of Genoa hit a dreadful 109 degrees, and on July 9, 1937, the Mississippi River-hugging Winona hit 109 degrees as well. According to the National Weather Service, “an unseasonably hot and humid air mass” hit the entire Midwest the week of July 13, 1995, and took its time leaving the area, resulting in miserable heat from Wisconsin all the way down to Chicago and beyond. Meanwhile, Winona’s hot weather on July 9, 1937, doesn’t appear to be part of a larger heatwave, but it suffocated the city nonetheless. 

6. Wisconsin’s Third-Coldest Day in History: January 18, 1873

The third-coldest day in Wisconsin history is riding Eau Claire’s coattails. According to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, La Crosse’s temperature dropped to a beyond-shivering -43 degrees on January 18, 1873, mere days before the Midwest fell under siege by a vicious blizzard from January 23-24 (via WLFI.com). In fact, the blizzard was so bad that homes were irreversibly damaged in its rampage—this was no casual mounting of snow. Still, La Crosse’s coldest day barely beat the blizzard to America’s Dairyland.

Photo courtesy of Skeevo/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

7. Wisconsin’s Fourth-Hottest Day in History: August 2, 1988

The ‘80s have entered the chat, and they want their heat back. That’s right: August 2, 1988, was a scorcher in Madison, with the sun beating down on its denizens with 108 degrees of pressure. This heatwave was part of a bigger problem: Heat decimated the Midwest throughout the summer of ‘88, striking first in the earlier portions of the season before retreating and then sucker-punching the area again come August, according to Accuweather. It was a relentless time—and so much so that Accuweather reported folks asking “whether ‘God is against us.’” Talk about the dog days of summer!

Photo courtesy of Corey Coyle/CC BY 3.0.

8. Wisconsin’s Fourth-Coldest Day in History: February 10, 1899

Next up on the coldest-days list is Wausau, which experienced a record-low temperature of -40 degrees on two separate days: January 30, 1951, and February 10, 1899 (via the Wisconsin State Climatology Office). As we know, though, the same January 1951 day was when Eau Claire spent the night heavily bundled up, so it’s already on this list, leaving this slot solely for February 10, 1899. Unfortunately, there’s not much information about the greater conditions of that winter available, but based on Wausau’s temperature, it must have been an eerily chilly one.

Photo courtesy of vxla/CC BY 2.0.

9. Wisconsin’s Fifth-Hottest Day in History: July 19, 2005;  July 25, 1934; and August 24, 1948

The fifth-hottest day in Wisconsin history is another tie, this time a three-way one between July 19, 2005, July 25, 1934, and August 24, 1948. These three dates saw different Wisconsin cities hitting record-breaking highs of 107 degrees—more specifically, Plymouth on July 19, 2005; Racine on July 25, 1934; and Warrens on August 24, 1948. Interestingly, none of these dates appear to be part of larger warm fronts that devastated the entire Midwest like previous entries on this list.

10. Wisconsin’s Fifth-Coldest Day in History: January 21, 1888

We’ve had many late-1800 dates on this so far, and our final coldest day in Wisconsin history is no exception. On January 21, 1888, the Green Bay area reached a record low of -36 degrees—a whopping 58 degrees under water’s freezing point. While not much is known about what caused this specific weather, that this happened in the winter of 1888 at all isn’t surprising. The now-dubbed Great Blizzard of 1888 slammed the Atlantic Coast that March—two months after this record low in Wisconsin—and claimed hundreds of lives (via Britannica). Suffice it to say that whatever was in the air in 1888 wasn’t feeling very friendly.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.