The Wisconsin State Climatology Office is located within the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The state climatologist collects data and information for climate monitoring, provides climate information to residents of Wisconsin, demonstrates the value of climate information in the decision making process to the user community, and conducts applied climate research. This office is a partner with Midwestern Regional Climate Center in providing climate services to the public. If you would like assistance finding the climate data you want, visit our Guide to Wisconsin Weather and Climate Data.

Major Global Climate Change IPCC 2007 Report: The latest on human-caused global warming and future worsening, according to six years of new observations and analyses in this most authoritative report.

Announcements from US Climate Change Science Program (2008)

Badger State experienced an unusual climate year in 2008

Preliminary statewide averaged temperature data indicates that the calendar year of 2008 was the 18th coldest in the 114 years since sufficiently detailed climate records began in 1895.  While the precipitation data shows that the year was also the 42nd wettest (or 73rd driest) on record across the entire state, southern Wisconsin experienced above average rain and snow, but  the central and northern sections of the state below average precipitation.  
While the global average  temperature trend continued upward in 2008,  in the U.S., the trend was interrupted  by a year of near "normal" average temperature. For additional discussion of the climate across the US in 2008 see NOAA News article.

Winter continues See our Winter Page

In memory of a true Wisconsin climatologist
Reid A. Bryson, 1920-2008.  

Courtesy, the Archaeoclimatology Team, Center for Climatic Research

Reid was not only interested in Wisconsin's weather and climate, but he will be remembered as founder of the University of Wisconsin's Department of Meteorology in 1948, founder of the Center for Climate Research and its endowed Climate, People, and Environment Program, and founder of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His fertile mind gave birth to a wide range of studies and opinions on the earth's climate and it peoples. His legacy survives in  University of Wisconsin research and teaching activities extending  to other disciplines.

He is survived by his wife Frannie, and children Ann, Bill,  Bob and Tom.