LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – It has been an active year for tornadoes in the Badger State.

As we near the end of July, Wisconsin has already seen nearly double the average amount of tornadoes than in a typical year.

“We’re already up to 42 that have been counted across the state. Usually, in a typical year, Wisconsin sees about 23. We’re well ahead of normal in terms of tornado activity in 2024,” says National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Kurz.

Kurz says multiple factors led to an active early summer that helped raise the tornado numbers.

“We were coming out of a strong El Niño winter, so that kind of fueled things for an active severe weather season to start. The rest of this summer, as it’s been progressing, has been kind of typical. More active severe weather to start led to the quick turnaround in the tornado numbers compared to 2023, where the state was much closer to normal,” says Kurz.

Kurz adds that advances in radar technology have also assisted meteorologists in finding tornadoes that may not have been discovered in previous years.

“We can see the evidence that these tornadoes are giving us in technology. We’re able to see that better and we can put warnings out for those. Whereas in years past, they might have gone unwarned because we couldn’t detect those with the technology at the time,” says Kurz.

The National Weather Service warns even though tornadoes are most likely in may through July, the possibility for more tornadoes before the year is over is still likely.

We’re not out of the woods yet for that. Going into the month of August can still be very active for severe weather and even into early September. It’s more so when you get into the heart of the fall season is when severe weather activity usually starts to taper off,” says Kurz.

The current record for the most tornadoes in a single year for Wisconsin was in 2005 where 62 tornadoes occurred.

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Wisconsin officially kicks off its 2024 season on Monday with the start of fall camp. Head coach Luke Fickell and his staff were busy making changes this offseason, but what are the biggest questions before they open the season Aug. 30 against Western Michigan?

The number one factor in determining the ceiling of this Badgers team will be Miami (FL) transfer quarterback Tyler Van Dyke’s performance. SMU transfer Tanner Mordecai was relatively disappointing last season as a one-year rental with only nine touchdowns on the season.

Van Dyke has nearly 7,500 career passing yards and if he plays up to the potential he showed as a redshirt freshman, Wisconsin has a chance to surprise a lot of people in 2024.

Wisconsin has been known for dominant running backs for as long as they’ve had a football program. Braelon Allen is now with the New York Jets, but veteran Chez Mellusi is back for one more season. He will be flanked by Oklahoma transfer Tawee Walker.

There is a great chance that they take a two-headed monster approach in the backfield, which could be beneficial for Mellusi because he’s never had more than 173 carries in a season and he’s only had more than 51 carries twice. He has battled injuries throughout his college career, notably missing nine games last season. They will need him healthy to reach their offensive potential this season.

Luke Fickell and his staff made a splash in the transfer portal with Van Dyke, but they also got him a weapon with Boston College transfer wide receiver Joseph Griffin Jr. Leading receivers Will Pauling and Bryson Green return for another season, but is it enough?

Offensive coordinator Phil Longo had dominant receivers during his time at North Carolina with Josh Downs, Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome. Pauling has an argument to be the best slot receiver in the Big Ten, but the question is whether anyone on the roster has the potential to be a No. 1 option.

Longtime USC and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was hired as the new safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator this offseason for Wisconsin. His defenses notoriously struggled under Lincoln Riley, most recently allowing 34.4 points per game last season, which ranked 121st in the country.

Fellow co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel is likely the unannounced head of the unit, but Grinch’s fit on the staff will be one to monitor. Fickell was complimentary of the new coordinator at Big Ten Media Days, but his fit with the staff could be a different story.

In four seasons as offensive coordinator at North Carolina, Longo became one of the hottest names in play calling. He developed Drake Maye and Sam Howell into two of the best passers in the sport.

When Fickell brought him in last offseason, many people thought he would transform Wisconsin into an aerial threat and pass-first offense. That was not the case in 2023, but now with a different quarterback and more experienced pass-catchers the program will need to see some improvements this season.

The average hourly wage in Wisconsin was $33.48 in June. A year earlier, it was $30.93. The year-over-year increase of 8.2% was the second largest jump of any state in the country, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It wasn’t just a one-month occurrence either. Average the increases for the first half of the year and Wisconsin ranks first; the state ranks second when averaging the past three months.

“There’s still just the undercurrent of we don’t have enough folks and the way to get them is money still matters,” said Jim Morgan, vice president of business development and workforce strategies at Waukesha-based employer association MRA.

By the numbers, the job market is still tight. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 2.9% in June. It’s been around historic lows, ranging between 2.7% and 3.4%, since late 2021. The state’s total labor force in June was around 3.14 million people, up just 0.7% from where it was prior to the pandemic.

At the same time, the job and labor market in Wisconsin has cooled some since the Great Resignation period in 2021 and 2022.

The number of people quitting their jobs each month in Wisconsin reached as high as 91,000 in April 2022. This past April, there were 75,000 quits. Job openings have fallen, too, from a high of 268,000 in November 2022 to 172,000 as of April, the most recent data available.

Lori Malett, president of Milwaukee-based Hatch Staffing Services, said wage growth has tempered. A few years ago, employers were regularly offering double digit wage increases to entice candidates to change jobs, but now that figure is more likely around 6.5% to 8%.

She did say employers have trended toward giving larger increases to employees staying in their role, partially due to inflation and increases in the cost of living. If those increases were around 2.5% or 3% in the past, now they are coming in closer to 5.5%, Mallet said.

Even with strong wage gains on average for Wisconsin, Mallet said there is a mismatch between what employers are offering and what candidates want.

“So many job seekers or candidates in the market, they’re still thinking in their mind they should be getting those double digit increases to make a move,” Mallet said.

To counteract that mismatch, Mallet said Hatch is often talking with candidates early in the process about their understanding of the market and expectations for a wage increase.

“We have it at that initial phone screen. We’re not even at the interview phase,” Mallet said. “And then we’re already starting to say, ‘OK, you know what? That’s not the market we’re in and if moving jobs right now is ultimately just to get a huge increase in salary, this is not going to be a good fit for you because we know our clients aren’t going to budge.’”

In 2022 and early 2023, Hatch’s clients had so much demand they were willing to go to great lengths to find new employees.

“Well, demand is fairly light right now and most employers can get by a little bit longer without than what they could a year ago,” Mallet said.

Ryan Festerling, chief executive officer of Brookfield-based QPS Employment Group, echoed the sentiment that wage growth had tapered off. He said management and human resource teams were at “code red” to keep hiring as the economy emerged from the pandemic.

“Now that they’ve had some time to breathe, they know that if they continue to create a great culture, they don’t have to keep throwing money at it.”

Economic uncertainty is also translating to the candidate side as well.

“The average candidate is asking more questions about the stability of the organization, their ability to sustain a downward trend,” Festerling said, noting candidates are looking for other jobs when they are unsatisfied in their role, “but they are being very cautious about actually jumping ship.”

Wisconsin’s wage gains aren’t quite as strong when looking at weekly wages, where the average in June was $1,111.54, up 8.2% from a year earlier and the seventh largest increase in the country. The average increase for the year is 6.9%, good enough for third in the country.

However, wage gains in the state have not been evenly distributed by industry or across geography.

For the second quarter, four metro areas – led by Eau Claire at 18% – outpaced the average hourly wage increase statewide of 7.8%. Sheboygan, Oshkosh-Neenah and Appleton were the others.

The state’s two largest metro areas, Milwaukee and Madison, saw average increases of 2.1% and 1.3%, respectively, with Racine and Green Bay essentially flat.

By industry, only the private education and health sector, which averaged a 16.1% year-over-year increase, is outpacing the overall private sector.

The financial activities sector is just behind the state average at 7.3% and leisure and hospitality averaged a 6.7% increase. Manufacturing increased 5.1% on average and construction was up 4.2%.

Within manufacturing, however, there is divergence in wage trends across workers. For production workers in Wisconsin, the average increase in hourly wages for the past three months is 4.4%, suggesting non-production workers have seen increases much larger than the industry average.

Compounding matters for production workers, their average weekly hours have decreased year-over-year, dipping as low as 35.3 in January. For the second quarter, production workers averaged 38.6 hours per week, down from 39.6 a year ago, 40.2 in 2022 and 41.9 in 2021.

Slower hourly wage growth and declining hours have added up to a year-over-year decrease in average weekly wages for production workers in the first four months of the year. May saw an increase of 1.7% and June was up 6.2%. The average increase in weekly wages for the second quarter was 1.9%.