Wisconsin feels more like winter than it has in years. The weather has been colder than normal so far, and big storms dumped a lot of snow on the state. That’s boosted winter businesses and events that have struggled with recent warm winters.
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Thousands of people flocked to northern Wisconsin to get a glimpse of the ice caves within the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Monday, which officials have closed to the public after a single day.
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For the first time in over a decade, visitors may be able to access the ice caves within the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior as soon as Monday.
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Highs for Sunday are expected to range from mid 50s in southwestern Wisconsin to the low 40s in northern and eastern parts of the state.
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An unusually persistent cold front sweeping snow and freezing rain across the U.S. last month exposed a key vulnerability in school transportation systems across the South and Mid-Atlantic regions, where prolonged bouts with such severe winter weather is rare.
School districts unaccustomed to sustained winter weather were forced to suspend or significantly alter school bus operations, triggering widespread school closures, delays and logistical strain.
In Virginia, where snowfall is typically modest and short-lived, school districts across northern and central parts of the state struggled to safely operate school buses after repeated rounds of snow, freezing rain and overnight refreezing.
Fairfax County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, canceled or delayed classes for multiple days, citing icy secondary roads and blocked school bus stops. Albemarle County Public Schools reported similar challenges, noting that while major roadways were largely cleared, neighborhood streets remained hazardous for large school buses navigating early-morning routes.
In neighboring North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) also faced transportation disruptions as icy conditions lingered on secondary roads. District officials said decisions to close, delay, or shift to remote learning are guided by a broad, safety-first assessment that extends well beyond road conditions alone.
“CMS considers multiple factors, including primary and secondary road conditions, local and state plowing schedules, staff commute safety, student drivers and walkers, accessibility needs, and the readiness of more than 200 facilities that must be safely cleared of snow and ice,” said Tom Miner, assistant communications officer for the district.
Miner told STN that Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools and administrative sites are not maintained by city or county crews. While local agencies focus on public roadways, district operations teams are responsible for clearing school parking lots, entrances, walkways, and bus lots to ensure safe conditions on campuses.
Because Charlotte-Mecklenburg serves a geographically large and diverse community, Miner said decisions prioritize countywide student and staff safety. When school is in session, district operations significantly increase traffic on local roads through buses, staff vehicles, families and student drivers, a factor weighed carefully during weather-related decision-making. District leaders also rely on guidance from weather experts and emergency management officials as recovery efforts unfold across the county.
The impact of the cold front was also pronounced in Tennessee, where severe winter weather remains relatively infrequent outside of mountainous areas. In east and middle Tennessee, a rare combination of freezing temperatures, snow and icy road conditions prompted widespread school closures as bus fleets were sidelined. Metro Nashville Public Schools canceled classes after determining that residential roads and rural routes were unsafe for bus travel.
In Knox County, back-to-back winter storms over the past two weeks forced multiple canceled instructional days and delayed schedules. Ryan Dillingham, executive director of transportation for Knox County Schools, said even modest winter weather can have outsized effects in the region.
“We’re in an area that typically does not see heavy winter weather, so a relatively small amount that wouldn’t even be worth considering in other parts of the country can impact us heavily,” Dillingham told STN.
Dillingham said the district relies on a network of contracted bus operators positioned throughout Knox County to assess road conditions during weather events, combining those reports with forecast data and information from law enforcement, first responders and school safety and maintenance teams to guide decision-making.
“One of the unexpected impacts of these storms has been to drain our supplies of salt and de-icing compounds,” he explained. “We’re almost out locally, and suppliers are facing delays getting resupplies. That has led the county to prioritize major thoroughfares over neighborhood roads, which is logical and appropriate, but we have a lot of stops on neighborhood roads, so we feel that impact.”
Transportation officials across the region emphasized that many school bus fleets in southern states are not equipped with snow tires or chains, equipment typically unnecessary given their usual climates. Even brief overnight refreezing made routes unpredictable, forcing districts to prioritize safety over maintaining regular schedules.
Educators expressed frustration with the disruptions but largely supported school district decisions, acknowledging that transportation systems designed primarily for extreme heat and heavy rain are ill-suited for winter storms. The disruptions also renewed discussions about preparedness, with some districts exploring expanded use of remote learning days or adjustments to academic calendars to account for weather-related instructional losses. While forecasters expect temperatures to gradually moderate, school leaders say the cold front has already left a lasting impression.
Related: (STN Podcast E289) 2026 Kicks Off: Winter Weather, the World Stage & Rock ‘n Roll Leadership
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The post Bitter Winter Weather Halts School Bus Operations in Parts of South, Mid-Atlantic appeared first on School Transportation News.
A Detroit bus driver is facing community backlash after live-streaming himself offering free rides to students walking to school during frigid weather, a gesture he said came from concern, but that school officials warn could pose serious safety risks, reported New York Post.
Darrell Beaver, owner of Ellamin’Op Transportation, advertised the impromptu free rides on his Facebook page Jan. 28, encouraging parents on Detroit’s Eastside to alert their children if they saw his yellow bus.
Beaver wrote, “Hey I’ll be on the Eastside this morning finding kids that walk to school and giving them a free ride. Let your kids know if a yellow bus with Ellamin’Op Transportation on it, Its safe to get on please share and drop some location.”
The post quickly raised alarms among parents and Detroit Public Schools Community District officials. After receiving multiple reports, the district issued a mass text alert warning families that an unauthorized bus was operating in the area.
“An unauthorized bus was reported. Students should only ride official Detroit Public Schools buses on assigned routes,” the alert read, according to local news reports.
Beaver is not affiliated with Detroit Public Schools and is only contracted to operate a planned route with the Braniacs Clubhouse Child Development Center. However, officials reportedly confirmed he allegedly dropped off at least one student at Fisher Magnet Upper Academy with parental permission.
An investigation reportedly found no evidence of malicious intent but emphasized concerns about safety, liability and the precedent such actions could set.
“Removing this gentleman from the equation, we don’t have any information or evidence to suggest he had any nefarious intention,” said Detroit Public Schools Safety Police Chief Labrit Jackson via the article. “But we’re really focusing on sending the message to our young people: do not get into vehicles with strangers.” Jackson warned that publicizing such actions could inspire bad actors to exploit relaxed guidelines.
“The next person who’s watching this now, we’ve given him an idea… a vehicle to have access to our children,” he continued.
The incident occurred as Detroit experienced extreme cold, with morning wind chills between 10 and 15 degrees below zero. Beaver said the harsh conditions motivated him to act.
“I just jumped into help mode. Like, it was freezing,” Beaver told local media. “I was in a bus for over an hour, and my feet were froze[n], so I felt bad to see these kids walking.”
He added that offering rides to random students is not something he typically does and said he did not make money from the additional passengers.
Reaction from parents has been divided. Some defended Beaver, saying his actions helped families who could not afford ride-share services. “I wasn’t mad, but I was just hurt because we were really trying to get to work and school,” parent Jimerson said via the news report. “Lyft is $50. I don’t have $50 to get them to school at six-something in the morning.”
Others, however, expressed serious concerns about student safety.
“Who knows in this day and age what you want to do with someone else’s children,” parent Alana Jackson told local news reporters. “With insurance liability issues, safety issues, stranger danger issues, it’s totally inappropriate.”
No charges are reportedly being pursued against Beaver. He has agreed to stop offering rides to students who are not on his authorized route.
Related: Michigan School Bus Driver Stops Stranger Attempting to Board Bus
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Related: (STN Podcast E289) 2026 Kicks Off: Winter Weather, the World Stage & Rock ‘n Roll Leadership
The post Michigan School Bus Contractor Offers Controversial Free Student Rides appeared first on School Transportation News.
For some, centers say the need is starting to outpace capacity.
The post Wisconsin warming centers protect people in extreme weather — amid housing challenges appeared first on WPR.
Despite recent viral social media claims, trees do not literally “explode” like bombs in extreme cold.
What happens instead is a natural physical response to rapid and severe temperature drops. When temperatures plunge well below freezing, moisture and sap inside a tree’s wood can freeze.
Water expands as it freezes, which can create stress between the colder, contracting outer bark and the relatively warmer inner wood. That stress can cause the bark or trunk to split suddenly, sometimes making a loud bang or crack that people describe as an explosion.
This rare phenomenon is most accurately called frost cracking or cold splitting and happens during abrupt temperature swings, not continuous cold. It can occur most often in species with higher moisture content or thin bark.
While the noise may be startling, such splits usually do not pose widespread danger to people indoors, though they can injure trees.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Do trees explode in extreme cold? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
This story was produced in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Investigative Journalism class taught in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
When Alec Hembree fell through the ice on Lake Wingra last winter, he remembered, “it was instantaneous.”
It was just after dark on Jan. 20. The temperature was around 2 degrees. Hembree was riding his bike across the frozen lake from his work on Madison’s east side to his home on the west side, a commute he had tried successfully for the first time the previous week. When he fell in, his feet couldn’t touch the bottom. He barely had time to be scared.
“I think there were a couple people on the lake,” Hembree said. “They wouldn’t have been able to get to me before I got out.”
The air was so cold, Hembree’s leather gloves immediately froze to the icy surface of the lake when he tried to pull himself out. After about 30 seconds in the water, he was able to pull himself and his bike out. It all happened so fast, he wasn’t sure how he did it. He thinks his training from being an Eagle Scout helped.
“Everything was in an ice shell at that point,” he said. He biked 10 minutes to a co-worker’s house, where he used a hair dryer to thaw his jacket zipper and get out of his frozen clothes before his co-worker gave him a ride home.
Hembree’s experience is becoming more common on Wisconsin’s lakes. For some, falls prove deadly. The Department of Natural Resources last winter recorded five people statewide who died falling through the ice on off-highway vehicles across the state. Between 2020 and 2024, similar accidents accounted for a total of seven deaths.
According to the Madison Fire Department, the Lake Rescue Team was dispatched four times to rescue people who fell through the ice in 2025 and six times in 2024, though only once in 2023. Through the end of 2025, the department had responded to 39 incidents of people falling through the ice since 2016. On Dec. 27 (as this story was being finalized for publication) the department rescued another individual who had fallen through the ice on Lake Mendota.
But those are only the incidents where the Lake Rescue Team was dispatched, so the stories of Hembree and others who fell through the ice and managed to escape aren’t included.
“This (past) year has probably been one of the more dangerous years on ice that I can remember,” said Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, the Wisconsin DNR’s off-highway vehicle administrator.
Treading on Wisconsin’s frozen lakes has gotten more dangerous, creating cost for taxpayers and business owners and calling into question the future of an important state pastime.
Trekking on Dane County’s frozen lakes is a common winter activity for southern Wisconsin residents.
“Walking on frozen lakes” was the most common activity on the lakes among respondents to a 2010 Dane County Land & Water Resources Department survey. At 28%, that was more common than swimming, kayaking, boating, or fishing from a boat or pier. Other ice-related activities such as skating and fishing were more popular than water skiing, jet skiing and sailing. The study authors estimated that close to 110,000 Dane County residents — more than a fifth of the population — walked on the county’s frozen water bodies at least once in 2010.
The heavy usage of the frozen lakes provides a revenue stream for numerous Dane County businesses and nonprofits. For example, the Clean Lakes Alliance hosts the annual Frozen Assets Festival, in which hundreds of participants take part in a fundraising 5K on frozen Lake Mendota and others enjoy scientific demonstrations, ice skating, kiting, boating and other ice-related activities.
But the future of frozen recreation in Dane County is in peril. Madison winters are getting shorter and less predictable. And falls through the ice are becoming more common.
Ron Blumer, a Madison Fire Department division chief who heads the department’s Lake Rescue Team and has been with the city since 1995, said in recent years his team has conducted “a lot more responses” to calls to rescue people who fell through the ice.
Part of the uptick can be attributed to climate change and the shrinking number of days of 100% ice cover on the Yahara lakes. Since 1855, when the Wisconsin State Climatology Office began consistently tracking Lake Mendota’s freezing and thawing dates, the lake has stayed frozen for an average of 102 days every winter. But only in four of the last 25 years has Mendota been frozen that long. During the 2023-24 winter, the lake was frozen for 44 days — a more than 20-year low. Last winter it froze for 69 days.
While information about how thick ice should be for walking or driving varies between sources, there is some consensus: No ice is ever completely safe.
“We really shy away from saying that there’s ever any ice that’s 100% safe,” Holsclaw said. The DNR’s website offers no hard and fast rules for what’s considered a “safe” thickness.
“You cannot judge the strength of ice by one factor like its appearance, age, thickness, temperature or whether the ice is covered with snow,” the website reads. “Ice strength is based on a combination of several factors.”
Air temperature is just one of those factors. But others include wind, sunlight, whether the ice is near a spring or other moving water, and whether the ice is frozen water (black ice) or mixed with snow (white ice).
“Black ice can withstand a lot more force (than white ice),” said Adrianna Gorsky, a freshwater and marine sciences Ph.D. candidate at UW-Madison. “Even if you have really thick white ice, it might not be as strong as if you had black ice only.”
Fluctuations in temperature during winter can also have a marked effect on ice thickness and quality. In January and February of 2025, it wasn’t uncommon for temperatures to fluctuate by tens of degrees within a single week in Dane County. On Jan. 21, the day after Hembree fell through the ice, Madison temperatures were in the single digits. A week later, on Jan. 28, the high temperature was 49 degrees. This frequent melting and thawing back and forth, Gorsky said, could result in mixed layers of black and white ice that would compromise the ice’s structural integrity.
Variations in temperature can also make lake ice expand or contract, causing pressure heaves or large cracks to form in the surface of the ice.
“And there will be a gap in there where there’s thin ice or no ice at all,” said Jon Mast, a lieutenant on MFD’s Lake Rescue team. These areas can be especially dangerous to walk near.
For as much that is known about factors affecting ice thickness and qualities, “there is a lot of unknown,” said Gorsky. That’s because winter limnology is relatively understudied compared to other areas of marine science.
“There’s a lot of things we still don’t know and a lot of theory that we’ve based off summer open water season that doesn’t really hold true for winter,” Gorsky said.
Increasingly visible effects of climate change on lake ice have precipitated “a cry for more research” in winter limnology, Gorsky added. And it can’t come soon enough. Because falls through the ice are costing local businesses, nonprofits and taxpayers money.
In Madison, there are no fines associated with being rescued from falling through the ice. Because, Blumer said, “we want people to enjoy the lakes and to have fun.” But that fun still comes at a cost.
Businesses and organizations that rely on the ice for income are feeling the strain of weakening lake ice too.
In 2024 the Clean Lakes Alliance canceled all on-ice events for its Frozen Assets Festival, including the annual 5K. According to Sarah Skwirut, the Clean Lakes Alliance’s marketing coordinator, only around 200 participants participated in the on-land “winter workout” the organization hosted in lieu of the 5K, down from 800 who ran the 5K the previous winter, which generated around $30,000 for the nonprofit.
“If the lack of ice becomes more common in the future,” Skwirut said in an email, “we will need to adapt and find new ways to engage the community and promote our work.”
Small businesses are equally if not more affected by the phenomenon. In 2022, Pat Hasburgh purchased D&S Bait and Tackle in Madison, “very aware of what I was getting myself into as far as climate change and running a business that kind of depends on ice,” Hasburgh said. He admitted the recent, mercurial winters have made it difficult to plan for the ice fishing season.
“I mean, I had a pile of augers waist high in 2022,” Hasburgh said, citing that people are less likely to need such a high-powered tool to break through the ice in warmer winters. And 2024 was even worse.
“We had four weeks of ice, as opposed to three months,” he said. “That was a rough one to try to make it through as a business.” Hasburgh is used to around a third of D&S’s business coming from ice fishing, but guessed that it was probably less than a quarter in 2024.
The increase in falls through the ice is easier to see in a populous part of the state like Dane County. But the trend is apparent across Wisconsin. And in many cases, the cost is more than just lost business or an icy bike ride.
The five deaths this past winter happened in Pewaukee, Kenosha, Fond du Lac, Superior and Westfield, an hour north of Madison, where a man died on Jan. 6 after falling through the ice on Lawrence Lake while riding a UTV.
In a Facebook post, the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office urged the public “to avoid venturing onto frozen lakes or rivers unless they have confirmed the ice is thick enough for safe activities.”
The temperature in Westfield on Jan. 6 was below freezing and had been every day the previous week.
An October 2024 study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment warned that lakes between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude — a range that includes all of Wisconsin south of Wausau — could lose all safe ice for the winter sometime this century.
A solution may lie in more research. Gorsky said predicting the future of what winter is going to look like for lakes “is a really big research topic.”
For Hembree’s part, he considers himself lucky to be alive. But he has “no concerns” about going back on the ice. He’s enjoying it while he still can.
“If I do go out commuting on the lake again I will be, certainly, more cautious,” he said.
The Madison Fire Department offers these tips for those planning to go out on the ice this winter:
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On thin ice: Falls through the ice on Wisconsin lakes are becoming more common. There’s more than just warm weather to blame. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
As more homes in the UK move away from gas heating systems, the need for a sustainable but effective method of heating and providing hot water for the home has become paramount. Heat pumps are rapidly emerging as a lead player in the game of decarbonised energy systems. But they are more than just efficient …
The post How Heat Pumps Fit Into the Future Grid appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
More federal and legal wrangling over school bus Wi-Fi and emissions regulations, plus bus manufacturing updates. Read the new October issue of School Transportation News magazine and watch our recent webinars.
“I’m thankful I had the job that I had, to do the work that I had, at the time that I did.” Jeremy Stowe, director of transportation for Buncombe County Schools in North Carolina, transports us into the story of when Hurricane Helene hit last September and how student transporters assisted with emergency response and recovery. The dedication of the district’s maintenance team is reflected in the Garage Star award it won this year. Stowe also discusses benefits of vendor partnerships in technology and alternative transportation.
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The post (STN Podcast E276) Cowboy Stuff: NC Bus Operation & Garage Stars Weather Hurricane Helene appeared first on School Transportation News.
New Poll: American Voters Support Federal Investments in Electric Vehicles Broad, Bipartisan Support for EV Investments and Incentives that Lower Costs, Expand Access, and Help the U.S. Beat China in the Race for Auto Manufacturing WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new bipartisan national poll conducted by Meeting Street Insights and Hart Research finds broad public support …
The post Support for Electric Vehicles appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
$1.2 Trillion+ opportunity for Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) developers globally says UK report 1 FOW developers urged to learn lessons from European deployment Seoul, South Korea, 27 November 2024 — As the global wind industry prepares for GWEC’s Wind Energy Summit in South Korea later this week, Principle Power and Shoreline Wind demonstrate how Floating …
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