A Bad Day for Hats and Toupees in Milwaukee

Today has been an exceptionally windy day in southeastern Wisconsin. At WUWM's studios, we have been lulled by the sound of creaky windows and wind gusts.

Lake Effect's Mitch Teich watched whole magazines fly past his seventh floor window, while one WUWM guest witnessed a lady being knocked over by a particularly strong gust of wind.

Earlier in the day, we watched water dance across the frozen river.

According to Innovative Weather's Mike Westendorf, peak wind gusts at the airport hit 63 mph and have consistently peaked between 50-55 mph through 3 pm.

"There is a corridor of wind that stretches from about Port Washington to Madison to Platteville and south into northern IL that has had the highest winds of 45-65 mph," he says. "North of that line, the winds are quite a bit lower in the 25-40 mph range."

Westendorf says the wind is being driven by a strong area of low pressure tracking through northern Wisconsin.

Though winds will take time to diminish, he expects the damaging winds to diminish after 5 pm and by 9 pm most of the gusts will drop below 40 mph across southeastern Wisconsin.

Not everything about today's wind is to be taken lightly. Please be safe out there.

Additional weather fact from meteorologist Mike Westendorf: We were just short of the record high today, the temperature briefly hit 57 degrees.