GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Sun shining, barely a snow pile in sight, people out on the Fox River Trail, the Fox River itself wide open for anglers and their boats…
Sights that are pretty typical for late March or April. But it’s not late March or April. It’s the second week of February.
“I’ve never seen it like this. All the ice is gone off the river. It’s pretty early this year. Usually the end of March. It’s way ahead of time,” said Todd Henrickson of Menasha. He had just gotten done fishing for walleye with a friend.
Michele McCormick of Allouez walks several miles a day, all winter long, but rarely does she get to do it outside so often as she has this winter.
“Normally I walk all winter, except when there’s ice. So this is just a gift to have it be clear of snow, clear of ice. The sun is shining, which adds a particular bonus to everybody’s outlook,” said McCormick.
This winter has been anything but normal. Let’s just run down the basic numbers to start.
Our average temperature so far this winter — which we’re defining as meteorological winter, so since Dec. 1 — is 30.5 degrees through Feb. 12.
Again, that’s average temperature. Not average highs. Average.
Keep in mind that our average high right now is still in the upper 20s.
Our average temperature through this point in winter is usually just 21.1 degrees. It’s easily the warmest winter on record through the first 74 days of the season.
But we really need to put that average temperature in perspective compared to the other years.
This is a look at the other top-10 warmest winters through Feb. 12 in Green Bay.
The reading of 30.5 stands apart from the pack by a margin of nearly three full degrees. That might not sound like a lot, but look at how tightly packed the rest of that top 10 is.
2.9 degrees between this year and second place is bigger than the gap between second place and 10th place.
Another way to look at this — the second warmest year on record through this date had an average temperature of 27.6 degrees.
That’s 6.5 degrees warmer than what at typical winter would see. *This* winter is sitting at 9.4 degrees above average. That’s almost 50% more than the second place year’s departure!
And when you consider that meteorological winter only has another two-and-a-half weeks to go, it’s going to be really hard for any of those other years to catch up to this winter.
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