A brutal blast of cold air surged into the Midwest from January 22 to 25, dropping temperatures to lows not seen in nearly seven years. This was actually the second batch of cold air to impact the region that week, after a smaller air mass had brought subzero temperatures on January 19 and 20.
This second, larger air mass originated from the far northern islands of Canada. A weak polar vortex threw the polar jet stream off kilter, allowing the frigid air to sink farther south than usual.
Temperatures fell below zero as a cold front swept through on January 22, ushering in the Arctic air. Many locations in the state didn’t see temperatures rise above zero for the next two to three days.
On the morning of January 23, wind chills of 40 to 50 degrees below zero were widespread across Wisconsin, with temperatures of minus 20. Rhinelander measured a wind chill of -56 degrees Fahrenheit, the city’s coldest wind chill on record.
| January 23, 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Location | Minimum Temperature (°F) | Coldest Wind Chill (°F) |
| Cable (Bayfield Co.) | -31 | -54 |
| Rice Lake (Barron Co.) | -29 | -51 |
| Rhinelander | -28 | -56 |
| Maple (Douglas Co.) | -28 | -49 |
| Crandon (Forest Co.) | -27 | -55 |
| Wausau | -26 | -51 |
| Antigo (Langlade Co.) | -26 | -54 |
| Ashland | -25 | -51 |
| Marshfield (Wood Co.) | -25 | -51 |
| Eau Claire | -24 | -46 |
| La Crosse | -20 | -46 |
| Green Bay | -19 | -47 |
| Darlington (Lafayette Co.) | -19 | -46 |
| Madison | -18 | -41 |
| Milwaukee | -15 | -42 |
In anticipation of the dangerous cold, nearly all schools in the state had cancelled in-person classes for the day. The University of Wisconsin—Madison cancelled classes for only the thirteenth time since 1965.
| Location | High Temperature (°F) on January 23, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Altona (Eau Claire Co.) | -18 |
| Couderay (Sawyer Co.) | -16 |
| Marshfield (Wood Co.) | -15 |
| Knight (Iron Co.) | -15 |
| Wausau | -14 |
| Eau Claire | -11 |
| La Crosse | -9 |
| Green Bay | -8 |
| Madison | -4 |
The afternoon remained frigid, with temperatures topping out at five to 10 below zero. While late January is typically the coldest time of year in Wisconsin, these highs were still 30 to 35 degrees colder than average!
With a high of -14 degrees Fahrenheit, Wausau set a new daily record for January 23’s coldest high temperature. Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay experienced their coldest day since the last extreme cold outbreak in January 2019.
Temperatures plunged even further on the morning of January 24, largely due to lighter wind speeds. Rhinelander reached -36 degrees Fahrenheit, the city’s coldest temperature since 1996.
In Iron County, the town of Knight reached a frigid 42 below! This is the coldest temperature reported in the state since 2019, and will likely rank as Wisconsin’s coldest temperature of 2026. As Wisconsin’s climate warms, these extreme cold temperatures have become rarer in the state.
| Location | Minimum Temperature (°F) on January 24, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Knight (Iron Co.) | -42 |
| Cable (Bayfield Co.) | -38 |
| Medford (Taylor Co.) | -38 |
| Rhinelander | -36 |
| Rice Lake (Barron Co.) | -35 |
| Wisconsin Dells | -30 |
| Eau Claire | -29 |
| Wausau | -25 |
| Madison | -19 |
| La Crosse | -19 |
| Green Bay | -17 |
| Milwaukee | -13 |
Thanks to the lighter winds, wind chills weren’t nearly as extreme as the previous day. Feels-like temperatures ranged from 20 to 30 degrees below zero across the state.
High temperatures still struggled to pass the zero-degree mark, though. Madison had its second consecutive day with a sub-zero high temperature, only the second time that’s happened since 2000.
By January 25, the most extreme of the cold had passed. Temperatures gradually began to warm and (barely) rose above zero degrees for the first time in days. Wausau spent 67 consecutive hours with below zero temperatures, tied for the city’s fourth-longest on record. Madison’s 60 hours below zero was the capital city’s ninth-longest stretch on record.
| Location | Consecutive Hours Below 0°F between January 22 and 25, 2026 | Longest stretch since… |
|---|---|---|
| Eau Claire | 69 | February 2021 (93 hours) |
| Wausau | 67 | January 2025 (71 hours) |
| Madison | 60 | January 2019 (64 hours) |
| Green Bay | 60 | January 2019 (64 hours) |
| Milwaukee | 35 | January 2019 (64 hours) |
| La Crosse | 27 | January 2025 (35 hours) |
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health, emergency department visits for cold-related illnesses such as frostbite or hypothermia spiked in Wisconsin on January 24 and 25, nearly doubling the number of visits from earlier in the month. Visit numbers were higher and remained high for longer during this cold outbreak compared to times when extreme cold impacted the state in January 2025.
This is a product of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. For questions and comments, please contact us by email (stclim@aos.wisc.edu) or phone (608-263-2374).