Christmas to New Year’s stretch was one of the coldest on record

With this morning and today a little warmer, Iet’s give you a reminder of what the region had to deal with over the holiday break. If you cannot remember a colder time period around Christmas and New Year’s, it is because there was not any, at least when we were alive. From Christmas Day until December 31st, Milwaukee’s average temperature was just 6.1 degrees. The average temperature is both the lows and highs put together and dividing. The only year that was colder was 1880 during that timeframe.

Here’s the top 10 during that stretch:


The warmest day during the period was on Christmas Day with a balmy high of 21, and a low of 2. The single digits set in with the 26th and the 27th having a high of 6 and 7 degrees. Overnight lows during this stretch plunged below zero FOUR times.

This is cold, but not counting the wind chill. Three of these days featured average winds of 13 mph during the day – this dropped the wind chill or the “feels like temp” in the -20 to -30 degree range. Frostbite can setup within 20 to 30 minutes in this kind of weather.

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