Milwaukee has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfa''), with four distinct

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

s and wide variations in

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

and

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

in short periods of time. The city's climate is also strongly influenced by nearby

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

, which creates two varying climates within the

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

area. The Urban heat island effect also plays a role in the city's climate, insulating it from winter cold, but keeping it cooler in spring and summer.

Monthly normals and record temperatures

Temperatures

Milwaukee has a continental climate with wide variations in temperatures over short periods, especially in spring and autumn. The warmest month is July, when the average high temperature is 81 °F (27 °C), and the overnight low is 63 °F (17 °C).Average and record temperatures and precipitation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Weather Channel

/ref> The coldest month is January, when the average high temperature is only 28 °F (-2 °C). Low temperatures in January average 16°F (-8°C). The highest temperature ever recorded in Milwaukee is 105 °F (41 °C) on July 24, 1935 and the coldest temperature is -26 °F (-32 °C), on both January 17, 1982 and February 4, 1996. The former occasion is referred to as "

Cold Sunday "Cold Sunday" was a meteorology, meteorological event which took place on January 17, 1982, when unprecedentedly cold air swept down from Canada and plunged temperatures across much of the United States far below existing all-time record lows. ...

", because of the extreme cold felt in many locations in the United States on that day.

Precipitation

Milwaukee has varied precipitation throughout the year, in both type and amount. Although

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

can fall all year round, it is rare during winter months.

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

falls from late November until early March, although snow can fall as early as late September or as late as the end of May. During the transition into and out of winter, various mixed forms of precipitation can occur, such as sleet,

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

, and freezing rain. Ice storms are uncommon. These types of precipitation tend to occur mainly in November and March. An average year in Milwaukee sees 34.81 inches (884.2 mm) of precipitation, with a yearly average snowfall of 52.4 inches (133 cm).Average annual precipitation by month at selected locations,

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

br>
The city receives more snowfall than cities even slightly inland because of

lake-effect snow Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated up by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises up through ...

produced by

. As Milwaukee lies on the western shore of Lake Michigan, east winds, although not the prevailing wind direction in the Midwest, occur when panhandle hook systems move northeast bringing heavier snowfall on the Milwaukee side of the lake. Milwaukee receives far less snow than cities on the eastern shore of the lake, which receive extra snowfall when more common west or north-west winds blow. The wettest month of the year is August, with an average 4.03 inches (102 mm) of precipitation, mainly as rainfall. Long-duration rains are uncommon in summer, usually occurring only in April or October. Thunderstorms are the main precipitation events from May until September, and Milwaukee experiences an extended

tornado season Tornadoes have been recorded on all continents except Antarctica. They are most common in the middle latitudes where conditions are often favorable for convective storm development. The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, as we ...

that lasts from late March until early June, however, severe weather and tornadoes are more frequent inland to the west. The driest month is February, when only 1.65 inches (41.9 mm) of precipitation falls, almost entirely as light, low moisture content snow resulting from the

Alberta clipper An Alberta clipper, also known as an Alberta low, Alberta cyclone, Alberta lee cyclone, Canadian clipper, or simply clipper, is a fast-moving low-pressure system that originates in or near the Canadian province of Alberta just east of the Rocky ...

type system when cold, dry air masses dominate.

Notes

References

{{ClimateUS Milwaukee Milwaukee metropolitan area

Climate of Wisconsin

Monthly normals and record temperatures

Temperatures

Precipitation

Notes

See also

References