Wisconsin winters are warming. The trend is one element of climate change that we are seeing and feeling.
Next week WUWM is airing a series of stories exploring some of the facets of what scientists are studying, what ecosystems are experiencing and what we're navigating as humans. Here's a preview:
How are trees holding up
We'll get the perspectives of an apple orchard manager outside Madison, visit a City of Milwaukee Forestry crew, learn about a Sherman Park neighborhood tree initiative, and visit Walworth County, where an oak forest and savanna project are underway.
Our warming winters add to the stressors trees face.
"In the fall, when things start cooling down, they gain dormancy, right, and they hit their peak dormancy when it gets the coldest, and they’re able to handle it. If then you have a stretch of milder weather, they'll start to lose dormancy. And then, if it drops back down again real abruptly, that's when you get tissue damage on the tree roots, buds, things like that, because it’s just not as dormant. It’s not as hardy. So, that’s a big issue," Liz Griffith, Door Creek Orchard, says.
How is wildlife being impacted?
We meet two UW-Madison researchers who are focusing on snow-dependent species that rely on snow cover, like the snowshoe hare. We visit an ephemeral pond in Waukesha County that vulnerable species, like frogs and salamanders, depend on, and Mequon Nature Preserve, where warming winters challenge restoration efforts and the habitats they support.
"Star-nosed moles and other small mammals that are in this prairie—those species are really affected by the poor winter conditions we’re having right now with no snow on the ground, because that snow is an insulating layer. So, the moles that are feeding on grasses and seeds can forage all winter under the snow, and they’re protected from predators. But when it’s this cold, they’re exposed to predation if they’re on the surface feeding. Plus, if there’s a deep freeze, it can reach their underground retreats, and they may not survive. And that’s true for some of the amphibians here as well. So, the snowless winters are becoming an issue, and we need to keep tabs on how that’s affecting the critters," biodiversity program director Gary Casper says.
Taking the pulse on Lake Michigan's whitefish
We meet a DNR biologist and a Wisconsin Sea Grant fisheries specialist. Along the way, we hear perspectives from a Door County commercial fisherman as well as a fishing guide. His business depends on a healthy whitefish population and safe ice to reach them.
"People might see me drive my UTV out there today, and there’s spots where I might be 10 feet away from open water. Well, if that skims over and you don’t realize, and they see me out past it and they just start driving and drop through. So, I try warning people. Yes, you can if you walk your route first. I walk all my paths. Last night, I put on about two miles walking with a chisel. I’ll be walking many more miles yet this year," Door County ice fishing guide Zach Burgess says.
Winter recreation
Last winter was Wisconsin's warmest since people started keeping track in 1895. Wisconsin State Climatologist Steve Vavrus says winter temperatures are trending unmistakably upward. "And we see that as an unmistakable downward trend in ice cover—the amount of ice cover, the days with ice cover, the thickness of ice—those are all shrinking, and that’s consistent with the overall warming climate," Vavrus says.
WXPR news director Katie Thoresen shares her perspective on winter recreation from her vantage point in Rhinelander, and we visit an iceboat regatta on Lake Winnebago.
Maggie McGary was the youngest enthusiast in the crowd. The Minneapolis high school freshman described the thrill of riding the ice.
"I think it's just you're 6 inches off the ice going 40, 50 miles an hour. That feels a lot faster, especially when you don’t have a windshield like in a car. There's so much wind, and there's so much speed that you're kind of, oh my gosh. It's a very precarious feeling almost—don't steer too fast, don't change anything," McGary says.
Following the water
Our warming winters have made predictable freezing, snowfall, and thawing a thing of the past. We meet folks living and working within the Oconomowoc watershed—from farmers to lake associations and water utilities teaming up to manage stormwater and promote water health within the watershed they share. MMSD's Jerome Flogel says when it comes to Milwaukee's highly hardscaped environment, management has become a year-round issue.
"We have to be prepared to manage stormwater pretty much 12 months out of the year because we can get an event, like we’ve seen in the last, let’s say, month, where we have these swings in temperature and it gets to 50 degrees and we have an inch of rain. We have to be ready to manage that not only in the sanitary but the storm (system). And then it just makes it worse if we’ve gone through a cold period and we have frozen ground and we have zero permeability pretty much, and it’s all gonna be runoff," Flogel says.
Focus on energy
As part of the Thin Ice 2025 series WUWM's Chuck Quirmbach will be sharing timely reports on the status of federally funded EV charging stations and their future under the Trump administration. He'll also be reporting on the tug and pull around plans to meet the power demands of high-tech industries.
