With all the snow this winter, many people are interested in the snow record and where it was recorded back in 1885. Obviously we did not have an airport in 1885, so where was the snowiest winter recorded. Thanks to Rusty Kapela and the National Weather Service, I now have the complete history of observation sites for Milwaukee weather.

I wrote an article in the Journal Sentinel last week in addition to showing the information on the 4pm news, and the response has been overwhelming. In case you missed it, here is the list.

August 1940 - Present: Mitchell International Airport

The rest of the locations are located downtown:

April 1899 – August 1940: Federal Building (Jefferson and Wisconsin )

March 1878 – September 1899: Mitchell Building (Water & Michigan)

This is the site of the snowiest winter in Milwaukee back in 1885.

Nov. 1870 – March 1878: Insurance Building (Broadway & Wisconsin)

Nov. 1870 – Dec. 1870: Chamber of Commerce (Broadway & Michigan)

March 1849 – Dec. 1871: Increase Lapham Home(McKinley & Old World

Now there is an argument that the comparison is unfair, that the sites are not the same and it is comparing apples to oranges. While they are not the same location, the airport is just a few miles south of downtown and located on the lakefront like downtown…so they experience the same weather, especially the lake breeze. It is true that the airport could have different snowfalls than downtown, but they would be very similar.

If you think Milwaukee is bad, look at Chicago . O’Hare became the recording site when the airport was built. Before that, it was in downtown Chicago . Those two sites are the distance between downtown Milwaukee and Oconomowoc and those are two different climates. As a result, Chicago breaks record low temperatures all the time since inland areas are cooler than what the lake is.