Today the expected final day of the heat wave

• Heat wave

Heat wave

Talk about it

Today is expected to be the final day of a heat wave that’s held a grip on much of Wisconsin for a week-and-a-half. Forecasters say the afternoon highs are expected to hit 90 in the north and up to 102 in the south. But the far north could drop below 60-degrees tonight, when a cold front is expected to bring showers and thunderstorms to northern and central Wisconsin. And tomorrow, forecasters say the highs should be around 80 in the north and the mid-to-upper-80’s in the south. Even cooler readings are predicted for Sunday. Yesterday, Milwaukee and Madison both had their third-hottest days ever. It was 104 in the Capital City and 103 in Milwaukee, both shattering previous record highs for the date that were 101 years old. Authorities say Wisconsinites are doing a much better job of dealing with the heat than they did during a similar stretch of hot weather in 1995. Hundreds of people in the Midwest died in ’95, including 100 in Milwaukee. But this summer, the city has only had two heat-related deaths. In Rock County yesterday, an 83-year-old woman was found dead in her home – where it was 95 when she collapsed.

___________________________________________________________________________

The Rock County coroner was expected to say more today about the heat-related death of an 83-year-old woman. Officials said her body was found in a home where the temperature was 95-degrees yesterday afternoon. Hospitals have been treating a number of heat-related injuries, especially in southern Wisconsin where the mercury has gone above 100 the past three days. In Milwaukee, health officials say the heat might have caused the deaths of around 200 seagulls near a downtown intersection that were part of a colony of several thousand gulls. City environmental health director Paul Biedrzycki said the birds appeared to have avian botulism – and it does not affect humans. Also, the state D-N-R says the hot weather has resulted in more blue-green algae in various waterways – and it poses a health risk to both people and pets. Officials said a dog in Oneida County died this week from algae exposure. And the hot, dry weather has generated more wildfires – 52 in the past week in the D-N-R’s fire protection areas. Weather officials say the long heat wave is about to come to an end after today. It has already cooled off in far northern Wisconsin, where a number of places had overnight lows in the 50’s for the first time in a while. Eagle River was the state’s cool spot at seven this morning, with 57 degrees. But parts of southern Wisconsin were in the 80’s, heading toward triple-digits again today.

Tags: news, weather, wisconsin