A small northern Wisconsin community whose name conjures thoughts of frigid cold and snow was anything but cool on June 22. Dina Byrnes, who works at a greenhouse in the village of Winter, said customers who streamed in and out remarked on the heat all day. The store offered misters for sale at the checkout line to blow cool air on people. Some customers escaped to the shade of a woodland garden outside while children played in the surrounding ponds at the Winter Greenhouse.
"We had staff members going out and putting their feet in the ponds to cool off," Byrnes said.
The Sawyer County village of Winter witnessed the state's highest heat index of 111 degrees Fahrenheit during a heat wave late last month, according to a newly released report from the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. Heat index measures how hot it feels when humidity is combined with air temperature.Amanda Schwabe, a state climate outreach specialist, said a heat index of 111 degrees is quite unusual for a place so far north.
"And of course, pretty ironic that Winter is one of the hottest places in the state during that heat wave," Schwabe said.
Read more at Wisconsin Public Radio
