Wisconsin, 2013

Winter Weather in Wisconsin, December 19 to 20, 2013

December 19 to 20, 2013 · NWS MKX · 20 events in 20 counties and zones

A surge of relatively mild and moist air aloft brought mainly freezing rain, with some light snow and sleet to southern Wisconsin. 15 inches accumulated on roadways and sidewalks.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 20 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
20

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS MKX wrote it up.

A surge of relatively mild and moist air aloft brought mainly freezing rain, with some light snow and sleet to southern Wisconsin. A glaze of ice from 0.05-0.15 inches accumulated on roadways and sidewalks. Numerous slide-offs and accidents occurred. Some schools were cancelled over southeast Wisconsin.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Milwaukee, WI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 19, 3:54 PM CST, 1 hour 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 19, 3:54 PM CST, 1 hour 6 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 19, 3:59 PM CST, 1 hour 1 minute before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

20 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Weather, Kenosha

When
December 19, 5:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Kenosha forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.573, -87.840 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Green

When
December 19, 6:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Green forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.680, -89.602 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Lafayette

When
December 19, 6:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Lafayette forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.661, -90.132 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Rock

When
December 19, 6:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Rock forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.671, -89.072 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Walworth

When
December 19, 6:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Walworth forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.669, -88.542 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Dane

When
December 19, 7:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Dane forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.067, -89.418 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Iowa

When
December 19, 7:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Iowa forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.001, -90.135 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Jefferson

When
December 19, 7:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Jefferson forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.021, -88.776 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Racine

When
December 19, 7:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Racine forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
42.730, -87.812 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Columbia

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Columbia forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.467, -89.334 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Dodge

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Dodge forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.416, -88.707 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Milwaukee

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Milwaukee forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.022, -87.929 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Ozaukee

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Ozaukee forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.403, -87.891 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Sauk

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Sauk forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.427, -89.948 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Washington

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Washington forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.369, -88.231 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Waukesha

When
December 19, 8:00 PM CST to December 20, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Waukesha forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.018, -88.304 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Fond du Lac

When
December 19, 9:00 PM CST to December 20, 3:00 PM CST
Where
Fond du Lac forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.754, -88.488 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Green Lake

When
December 19, 9:00 PM CST to December 20, 3:00 PM CST
Where
Green Lake forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.800, -89.045 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Marquette

When
December 19, 9:00 PM CST to December 20, 3:00 PM CST
Where
Marquette forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.820, -89.399 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

Winter Weather, Sheboygan

When
December 19, 9:00 PM CST to December 20, 3:00 PM CST
Where
Sheboygan forecast zone
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
43.756, -87.800 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Ice accumulation of 0.05-0.15 inches from freezing rain.

What these are

Winter Weather
Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Wisconsin in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Wisconsin, December 2013

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 489841, 489836, 489842, 489848, 489852, 489831, 489838, 489839, 489847, 489830, 489834, 489844, 489845, 489849, 489853, 489854, 489835, 489837, 489843, 489850.