NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – In a year of extreme weather fluctuations, from a record 26 inches of rain in the first six months in northeast Wisconsin to drought conditions and poor air quality from distant wild fires often caused by lightning strikes, climate change is happening before our very eyes.

“Climate change is going to affect everybody. It is important to bring it back to the forefront,” said Bart De Stasio, professor emeritus of biology at Lawrence University in Appleton. “It’s fallen off the radar unfortunately because of the political climate we’re in right now.”

Climate change costs

Leading up to the November election, affordability has garnered more political attention than the environment, but many Wisconsin residents and scientists say candidates should be addressing an issue that hits home for most people and also affects affordability: climate change. Insurance premiums and taxes often rise after property owners face stormwater damage, said Steve Vavrus, director, Wisconsin State Climatology Office and co-director, Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI).

“It’s in everybody’s interest, regardless of how people vote, to make sure our environment is in good shape,” Vavrus said. “The environment is our home. It’s in our own self-interests to make

Communities throughout northeast Wisconsin are dealing with more concerns about polluted runoff, as heavy rains become more common due to global warming.

“Day-to-day weather is shaped by climate change,” Vavrus said. Seasons are becoming warmer, causing more heat stress and extreme weather, such as flooding. Stormwater management infrastructure often is a century old in Wisconsin, Vavrus said, and it can’t keep up with torrential downpours. Lightning strikes have caused wild fires that affect the air quality and people’s health.

Warmer temperatures stem from fossil-fuel and methane emissions, De Stasio said. “The only way we’re going to be able to really change our path here is by continuing to look for other sources of energy” and by mitigating the impacts of manmade pollution, he said. “We’re going to have to adapt. Otherwise, we’re not going to survive this.”

Town of Peshtigo homeowner Jeff Budish couldn’t agree more. “The weather is talking to us. Mother Nature is telling us, ‘Hey, wake up,’” said Budish, a clean water advocate and avid angler.

While Budish blames gas-powered vehicles for much of the pollution causing the greenhouse gas effect, rivers so contaminated the fish aren’t considered safe for human consumption also frustrate him. He lives near the Peshtigo River, just outside of a designated area local residents call “the plume,” where “forever chemicals” stemming from Johnson Controls Inc.’s Tyco fire technology center in Marinette have contaminated the groundwater some residents used for drinking water.

Tyco has taken responsibility for the contamination in a limited area, offering to provide new deep wells for some residents, but a recently settled lawsuit could limit its contributions in the future. In the meantime, many residents outside of Marinette are concerned PFAS chemicals found in biosolids spread on farmland in a larger geographic area also are in runoff headed for waterways in heavy rains.

Warmer rivers

Charles Frisk, a retired Green Bay science teacher, has observed the worsening effects of climate change for several decades. Warmer rivers and lakes mean walleye and trout could become scarce, while bass become more prominent. It also could bring fewer days of cross-country skiing and ice fishing for winter tourism and poorer air quality in the summer from wild-fire smoke, he said.

“The rate at which the climate is warming up is just occurring so much more rapidly than what was ever thought,” he said, noting his brother in Oregon has experienced 115-degree summer days, while a decade ago air conditioning was unnecessary there.

In many parts of the country, extreme weather events involve lightning strikes igniting wild fires that burn for days or weeks, such as those in . Prescribed burns, used for forest and land management, also contribute to the smog that crosses state and national borders.

“They’re having (forest) fires all the time now,” Frisk said. “The fires are burning so much hotter, and they move so much faster.”

Envisioning what his granddaughters, ages 3 and 11, are likely to experience in their lifetimes because of climate change worries him. “By the time they are my age, there are going to be major highly populated areas where it’s unlivable” because of the heat.

Wild fire smog

The wild fires in Canada and Minnesota sent dangerous particulate material south to Wisconsin, impacting the air quality, De Stasio said. The particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter can get into people’s lungs and cause breathing problems, he said. “I wear a 95 mask when I have to do work outside in those smoke events,” he said.

“The frequency and intensity of these fires has increased,” said Nicholas Muller, professor of economics, engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, who coauthored a 2025 study on the cost of smoke from wild fires and prescribed burns in 2017.

They were linked to 20,000 premature deaths and $200 billion in damages, with a disproportionate number of seniors, Native Americans and blacks affected, according to the study.

When the air quality index hits 200, it becomes unhealthy to be outside, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In Green Bay, the City closed Bay Beach Park for two days in July due to smoke from Canadian and Minnesota wild fires, while some vacationers canceled their trips, leading to more financial impact.
While some people compared the smog to a campfire’s smoke, Muller said wild fire haze is far more dangerous.

“Around a bonfire, you may get a blast of smoke in the face, but you’re not exposed to the sustained smoke,” Muller said. “When I was walking around (in July), I was aware I was inhaling something. The particles were so abundant, you’re inhaling a high concentration of them,” Muller said.

Being prepared is one way to lessen the impact of climate change, whether it be wearing a facemask, helping to prevent flooding or contaminated waterways, or cutting back on driving a gas-powered vehicle, experts said. Allouez’ retention ponds, which cost from $500,000 to $1 million to construct, are designed to protect the waterways from polluted runoff, but they aren’t a panacea. Some residents in the village confronted damp or flooded basements in April and July, when streets also flooded, Gehin said.

Flood control

While stormwater damage in Allouez doesn’t compare to August mudslides in Nepal, the Allouez runoff into nearby waterways during heavy rains poses a large enough threat for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to urge the village to confront the problem of flooding.

“Climate change is real, and some of the weather situations add credence to it. This is the reality,” Allouez Trustee Jim Genrich said.

Allouez, situated between the East and Fox rivers, plans to construct its eighth retention pond since 2005 to help prevent runoff from stormwater surges that are becoming more common as greenhouse gases warm the earth’s temperature and spur more downpours, heatwaves, lightning strikes and tornadoes, experts say. The newest pond, slated for construction in Riverside Park in 2027, is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $800,000 with property taxpayers footing most of the bill, said Sean Gehin, public works director for the village.

The problem isn’t limited to the Green Bay area, said Jean Marsch, a Village of Allouez trustee and 50-year resident. “It’s something all municipalities are dealing with.”

“You can tell flooding is happening all over. You see it and hear about it, and know people who have experienced this kind of flooding,” Marsch said.

The City of Green Bay’s Fire Station No. 3 sustained over $50,000 in damage from June 24 flooding that affected the boiler, water heaters and electrical service in the basement. “Water came in through the crawl space in the basement and basement window wells. Water also was about a foot high around the station; the water penetrated through the garage doors and service doors. The sewer system also backed up and water came in through the floor drains on the apparatus floor,” said Green Bay Fire Chief Ray Fuiten. Other areas of the city also were affected by the deluge, said Valerie Joosten, director of public works. A dollar-amount for the damage wasn’t available.

Elsewhere, the Milwaukee flooding of 2025 cost an estimated $200 million in private-property damage, according to Kevin Shafer, executive director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Shared responsibility

While some are skeptical climate change will be addressed on the federal level under the current administration’s deregulatory stance, Wisconsin has had bipartisan support for flood laws, Marsch said, pointing to Wisconsin Act 265 signed into law in 2024. It created a pre-disaster flood resilience grant program.

Marsch would like to see more government funding to help communities deal with flooding and runoff. The Village also encourages residents to do their part by using rain barrels for their gardens, keeping leaves and grass clippings out of the street so they don’t clog the drains and avoiding fertilizers with phosphorus that can contribute to algae in waterways.

“Be mindful of what you put on your lawn; runoff can carry pollutants into the storm system and into our waterways,” Gehin said.

The Village of Allouez has installed catch basins with sump pumps to prevent storm sewers from becoming blocked with debris. It cleaned 500 catch basins last year, Gehin said.

“Everybody has a role to play in maintaining the safety and health of our community,” Marsch said. “We all have a role to play in doing what we can.”

This story was produced as part of the NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) News Lab, a consortium of five news outlets.