Wisconsin
Wisconsin is seeing higher than average number of tornadoes in 2024
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
Biggest questions for Wisconsin football entering fall camp
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.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin leads the nation in wage growth, but there’s nuance in the numbers
Wisconsin
How Wisconsin became the must-win state of the 2024 presidential race
There’s nothing easy about winning a statewide race in Wisconsin.
Over the past 25 years, Democrats and Republicans have braced themselves for hard-fought fights in the politically-polarized state, with most presidential contenders stumping in the state so much that voters truly feel like they’re part of the action.
Wisconsin has 10 Electoral College votes, which certainly isn’t the largest haul. (That would be California, with its 54 electoral votes.)
But the Badger State has arguably become the most consequential state on the 2024 presidential map by virtue of its Midwestern sensibilities and the highly competitive nature of its closely divided electorate, which makes it a bellwether for the politics of the United States.
In what is likely to be a contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the state is set to once again be at the center of the political universe in November.
How did Wisconsin become such a key battleground?
The growing urban-rural divide
It’s generally accepted that presidential races in Wisconsin will be decided by razor-thin margins.
In 2000, then-Vice President Al Gore won the state over then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush by a 0.22% margin. Four years later, then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry defeated Bush in the state by a 0.38% margin.
The common denominator: Democrats romped in the urban centers of Milwaukee and Madison, while also performing well in the Driftless Area and in blue-leaning northern counties. And while Democrats did not win many of the rural counties, they remained competitive overall, allowing them to eek out slim wins statewide.
Barack Obama changed this narrative in 2008 and 2012, though, winning by broad margins of roughly 14 points and 7 points, respectively. In the first race, Obama performed powerfully across rural Wisconsin, a huge breakthrough for Democrats.
But in 2016, Trump flipped Wisconsin into the GOP column for the first time since 1984, winning by a 0.77% margin and breaking down the “blue wall” that had held for decades.
Four years later, Biden won Wisconsin for the Democrats by a similarly tight 0.63% margin.
While both parties are clearly competitive in Wisconsin, the urban-rural divide — similar to much of the United States — has only grown wider. In the Badger State, heavily gerrymandered GOP-crafted districts and conservative rule dominating Madison for more than a decade — in what’s essentially a 50-50 state — have hardened partisan levels.
What will a Trump vs. Harris matchup look like?
This year, Harris and Trump are competing for many of the same voters, but they’re also appealing heavily to their respective bases.
After Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee in July, Harris’ first major political rally as a presidential contender was held in West Allis, a suburb in Milwaukee County.
This was not by accident.
The vice president will need to win the county — filled with Democratic-leaning independents and voters in deep blue Milwaukee — by a sizable margin to offset what’s expected to be Trump’s strength across rural parts of the state.
Trump earlier this summer campaigned in Racine, as he hopes to carve out working-class support in an area that’s politically competitive but in recent years has leaned toward the GOP on the presidential level.
Both parties are itching to win the state: Republicans held their national convention in Milwaukee earlier in July, where Trump also tapped Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate. And Harris could potentially select Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, which would put another Midwestern voice in the vice presidential mix.
The 2024 race will be centered on the economy, and whoever makes the most persuasive argument will likely win Wisconsin.
But the messenger will matter.
Even as Biden ended his campaign, Wisconsin was the swing state where he remained best positioned ahead of the fall, as his support among white working-class voters there had not collapsed.
While it will likely take another week to get a better sense of Harris’ standing in the state, early polling indicates another close contest. A Fox News poll taken after Biden’s exit showed Trump leading Harris by one point (50% to 49%) among registered voters.
But this is Wisconsin, after all. The political suspense is here to stay.
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