April-like weather in Wisconsin winter, surges in high winds and some storms

WAUSAU, Wis. (WXCO) – Record high daily temperatures have been beaten 5 days out of the past week, now colder air smacks into the unseasonable warmth, bringing threats of thunderstorms.

It’s the warmest start to the month of February that Wisconsin has ever experienced. Wausau, La Crosse and Eau Claire have all shattered record daily high temperatures multiple times since the beginning of the month. Wausau specifically has set record daily highs 5 times in the past week.

As the same storm system that brought heavy rain and vicious winds to California, now enters the Midwest, its dragging a record breaking warm front into northern states. Areas of Iowa will climb to near 70 degrees, while portions of western Wisconsin may climb to near 60 degrees! Meanwhile, statewide Wisconsin’s temperatures will rise into the 50s.

February 8th Current Record Highs to Beat:

Eau Claire: 49, Amery: 49, Waukesha: 50, Wausau: 50, La Crosse: 51, Wisconsin Rapids: 52, Richland Center: 53, Baraboo: 54, Madison: 55, Milwaukee: 55, Oshkosh: 55, Green Bay: 56.

As the systems nears, winds will whip. Wind Advisories have been issued into neighboring states, Iowa and Minnesota. While in Wisconsin, winds will be sustained near 20mph and gust up to 40mph by Thursday night. This could knock down some tree limbs and cause some power outages.

As a trailing cold front smacks into the state this afternoon and evening, chances of rain ramp up alongside a risk of thunderstorms.

The Storm Prediction Center has issued a ‘Marginal Risk’ for storms to turn severe for cities like Madison, Milwaukee, Rockford and Chicago.

Main threats are hail and damaging winds. However, a tornado cannot be ruled out. As of today, there has never been a tornado in the month of February, in the state of Wisconsin.