By the numbers
While Christmases in Milwaukee have felt warm in recent years, they’re no warmer, on average, than they were in the 1940s, data from the Wisconsin State Climatology office show.
The graph shows a five-year rolling average of the daily high temperatures in Milwaukee on Christmas day as recorded by the Mitchell International Airport weather station going back to 1942, as well as the same series for Green Bay at the Austin Straubel International Airport weather station.
In Milwaukee, the rolling average Christmas Day high reached a peak of 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit in 1943 before trending downward. At its lowest, the Milwaukee rolling average reached 16.6 degrees in 1987. Since the 1980s, it has ticked upward once again, reaching a 38.8 degree rolling average in 2023.
Milwaukee’s highest single-day maximum temperature on Christmas occurred in 1982 with a high of 61 degrees. The lowest daily maximum temperature in Milwaukee was recorded one year later on Christmas Day 1983, when the high was only 2 below zero. Green Bay has largely tracked the same trajectory as Milwaukee. Its lowest daily high also occurred in 1983, when the temperature was recorded at 4 below zero. Its highest daily maximum on Christmas was 54 degrees on Christmas Day 2023.
