With high of 58, city smashes Boxing Day heat record
Milwaukee on Thursday saw its warmest Boxing Day ever.
The record was set by 7:45 a.m. when temperatures hit 52 degrees, breaking the old record of 51 — set in both 2008 and 1936.
The temperature at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport would peak at 58 degrees by 1 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The record came amid a stretch of unseasonably warm weather that could pass for Wisconsin spring. Residents enjoyed blue skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s throughout the week.
The colder air has been bottled up in Canada, said weather service meteorologist Marc Kavinsky. Wisconsin has been subject to mild westerly winds in recent days. And without snow on the ground in the southern part of the state, temperatures are naturally higher, he said.
In Milwaukee, there’s usually about a 50-50 chance of a white Christmas, Kavinsky said.
This year the region fell on the nosnow side of the statistic. Milwaukee and Madison saw the second-warmest Christmas Day on record, according to the National Weather Service.
The Dec. 25 high in Milwaukee was 57 degrees, close to the record high of 61 in 1982.
Madison’s seen slightly cooler Christmases: It was 55 this year, just below the record of 56, also set in 1982.
Daily records have been breaking all week across the state. Appleton and Oshkosh broke decades-old records on Sunday as temperatures reached 49 and 50 degrees.
And the 54-degree weather on Sunday in Milwaukee was the warmest recorded on that day in 144 years, according to the weather service.
Meteorologists expect conditions to cool over the next few days: Friday’s high is 37, and Saturday should see temperatures in the 40s as well as much as an inch of rain in the afternoon.
In northeast Wisconsin, the warm temperatures and rain Saturday might cause floods.
“The rain combined with melting of lingering snow will cause rivers and streams to rise, and could result in flooding. Ice jams on rivers may also heighten the flooding potential,” reads a hazardous weather outlook statement from the weather service in Ashwaubenon.
A wintry mix of rain and snow is possible Sunday night into Monday in Milwaukee, as meteorologists predict a low of 31, but no “serious” snow is expected to accumulate, Kavinsky said.
The next chance for snow comes in the new year.