Forecast calls for 70s next week, but anglers might need ice augers on opening day

Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

No, it's not a mistake and it's certainly not a typo — the National Weather Service forecast for Monday in southern Wisconsin calls for high temperatures in the 70s.

That's a seven followed by a zero.

Forgive Wisconsinites their disbelief that spring will ever show up. It seemed like we were going to skip spring and move from winter directly to summer. Eventually.

Anne Guthrie and her grandson  Maximus Warren, 5,  enjoy walking her dogs Willis, Arlo and Tempe along N. 68th St. near Wauwatosa. Warmer temperatures are forecast for the end of the week.

And it still feels like the depths of winter in northern Wisconsin where ice on lakes is still yardstick deep. Which could mean some folks heading out on opening day of fishing season — the first Saturday in May — will need ice augurs and shanties rather than boats.

Check out this video from Kurt's Island Sport Shop in Minocqua filmed on Tuesday.

Thermometers in southeastern Wisconsin are expected to hit high temperatures of 72 on Monday and 73 on Tuesday.

"It's looking like that's within the cards," Sean Miller, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan, said Wednesday.

Which is quite a bit warmer than the normal temperatures at this time of year — Monday's average high is 59 and Tuesday is 60 in Milwaukee. 

The last time Milwaukee saw 70s? Way back on Oct. 21 when the high temperature topped out at 76. It's been downhill ever since.

Southern Wisconsin punched above its weight in snow this month. In April, Milwaukee recorded 10 inches of snow, while the monthly average is 1.9 inches. Madison got 13.4 inches this month; its average for April is only 2.4 inches. 

Snow piles are still huge in northern Wisconsin where many lakes in the top quarter of the state — roughly north of U.S. 8 — are stubbornly hanging on to their ice cover, ranging from 30 to 36 inches, said Mike Vogelsang, a state Department of Natural Resources district fisheries supervisor based in Woodruff.

The ice remained so deep Vogelsang had to put an extension on his augur last weekend, and many lakes in Vilas and Oneida counties, and elsewhere in the Northwoods, are still filled with folks zooming around on ATVs and snowmobiles.

"Looking out my window, it still looks like February. There's still a foot to a foot and a half of snow in the woods," said Vogelsang. "My counterparts in Madison have been out on the water for three weeks already and I say, 'We're still ice fishing up here.' And they're like, 'No way!' "

Vogelsang said the last time he saw conditions like this — such thick ice on so many lakes this late in the spring — was 1996 when many anglers were in ice shanties on opening day.

Though snow showers are forecast for Thursday in some spots in northern Wisconsin, the warmup that's predicted for the southern part of the state will also affect northern Wisconsin.

Which worries Vogelsang. 

The fishing opener might land right at the time when lakes are still covered in ice but are starting to break up, which could make it hazardous for anyone venturing out on the ice to entice a walleye to their hook.

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"It might be that precarious in-between stage, which is what I'm afraid of. Some of the smaller lakes with shallower depths could open up, but the big lakes will probably still be iced up," said Vogelsang.

The warmer temperatures will come courtesy of the Gulf of Mexico. A warming pattern is expected to move in to the state later this week, bringing up a milder air mass from the south, said Miller.