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Weather Wisdom - Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

By John Malan

Seasonal temperatures and a cold front moving this way spells a chance for showers and possible isolated thunderstorms mainly tonight in southeast Wisconsin. The best opportunity for rain in Milwaukee arrives by Tuesday evening and leaves by mid-morning on Wednesday. Most of the week looks mild with high temperatures between sixty-four and seventy degrees through Saturday. While the forecast is for warmer temperatures, the weather headline for yesterday and today in Milwaukee is the anniversary of the earliest measureable snowfalls in autumn. The earliest goes to October 6th in 1889 when one-tenth of an inch of snow fell, while the second earliest occurred on October 7th more recently in 2002. On that cold day two-tenths of an inch of snow fell, so both snowfalls while official and in the record book were short-lived. The earliest inch of snow occurred on October 17th in 1896 when exactly one inch accumulated. The first significant snowfall of the autumn season waited until October 20th in 1989 when 6.3 inches of snow accumulated, with damage occurring to trees that still had plenty of leaves. Sometimes the first measurable snowfall of the season occurs very late in the autumn season. The latest measurable snowfall waited until December 26th in 1888 when one-tenth of an inch fell and immediately melted away.