WI Autumns Are Warming Fast: Here's How Recent Falls Stack Up Since 1895

MILWAUKEE, WI — If it feels like Wisconsin's autumns have gotten milder, the numbers back that up.

The state's average fall temperature has climbed over the last 130 years, and the last few years have been among the warmest on record, according to statewide data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information.

NOAA tracks Wisconsin's statewide average temperature for meteorological fall, September through November, every year back to 1895. Across the 20th century, that average was about 45.5 degrees.

The last five falls, 2021 through 2025, averaged 49.4 degrees. That's about 4 degrees warmer than the 20th-century norm.

Fall 2016 holds Wisconsin's all-time record at 51.5 degrees. Fall 2024 came within a tenth of a degree, tying 1931 for second at 51.4 degrees. Fall 2025 averaged 49.7 degrees, the seventh warmest on record.

Six of the nine warmest falls in Wisconsin history have come since 2000, including three of the last five.

Here are Wisconsin's warmest falls since 1895, according to NOAA:

1. 2016: 51.5 degrees
2. 1931 and 2024 (tie): 51.4 degrees
4. 2015: 50.8 degrees
5. 1963: 50.6 degrees
6. 1998: 49.8 degrees
7. 2025: 49.7 degrees
8. 2021: 49.5 degrees
9. 2004: 49.3 degrees
10. 1953 and 2005 (tie): 49.1 degrees

Broken down by decade, the shift is even clearer. From the 1900s through the 1990s, every decade's average fall temperature landed between about 44.8 and 46 degrees. The 2000s jumped to 47.4 degrees, and the 2010s came in at 46.9 degrees. Through six falls, the 2020s are averaging 48.8 degrees.

Over the full 131-year record, Wisconsin's fall temperatures have risen at a rate of roughly 1.6 degrees per century, based on a linear trend of the NOAA data.

Cold falls haven't disappeared entirely. Fall 2014 averaged 43.2 degrees, and 2018 and 2019 both came in below the 20th-century average.

But the coldest falls on record mostly date to much earlier. The coldest was 1896 at 40.2 degrees, and the most recent fall to land among the 10 coldest was 1993, at 42.3 degrees.