Thankfully, it wasn't quite as cold as it was across the border to the west in Minnesota, but Wisconsin saw some pretty brutally cold wind chills on Friday morning.

A mass of arctic air has kept this week pretty chilly, but the wind chills on Friday morning are among the worst the Badger State can expect during this dip into the coldest part of winter so far.

Places across Northern Wisconsin saw wind chills in the -40s and -50s, thanks to air temperatures well below zero and some wind to drop those "feels like" values into the dangerous category.

Several counties across Northern and Eastern Wisconsin were under Extreme Cold Warnings due to the dangerously frigid conditions on Friday morning.

This particularly cold warning even spawned some eye-catching warnings from a social media weather enthusiast claiming Wisconsin was among the states that could see a risk of "exploding trees". If you had heard about this laughable claim yourself, here's the science behind the real phenomenon, which can be startling, but far less explosive than the name suggests.

Wind chills aren't a big concern to trees, though. For people and animals, they certainly are, though! Here's a look at the coldest wind chills across Northern Wisconsin on Friday morning.

Coldest Recorded Wind Chills In Northern Wisconsin Friday Morning

Here's a rundown of the coldest wind chills recorded across Northern Wisconsin and the hour in which they were recorded:

Rhinelander: -53 °F at 7 am

Wausau: -52 °F at 7 am

Ashland: -51 °F at 8 am

Rice Lake: -51 °F at 7 am

Eagle River: -49 °F at 6 am

Merrill: -48 °F at 7 am

Maple: -47 °F at 6 am

Minocqua: -47 °F at 5 am

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Hayward: -46 °F at 9 am

Eau Claire: -46 °F at 8 am

Superior: -45 °F at 8 am

Port Wing: -45 °F at 8 am

Phillips: -45 °F at 1 am

New Richmond: -45 °F at 7 am

Minong: -44 °F at 7 am

Ladysmith: -44 °F at 3 am

Bayfield: -43 °F at 3 am

Poplar: -40 °F at 1 am

The glimmer of good news is that while it will stay cold into next week, it won't be quite as cold. By the last couple of days of January, it is expected to warm up a bit.

Wisconsin UFO Sightings Reported in in 2025

A total of 74 sightings were reported via the National UFO Reporting Center across the state of Wisconsin in 2025, a sharp increase from the 50 reports in Wisconsin in 2024, which was also an increase from the 47 reports in Wisconsin in 2023.

Reports around Wisconsin in 2025 included places like Superior, Madison, Solon Springs, Sheboygan, Oconomowoc, and elsewhere around the state. Here is a rundown of each reported UFO sighting of 2025.

Gallery Credit: Nick Cooper - TSM Duluth

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