La Crosse weather service holds open house on same day as record low hits

Government weather forecasters in La Crosse picked a sunny and mild day to welcome a big crowd of visitors for an open house on Saturday.

The National Weather Service La Crosse office near Grandad Bluff had not brought in the public for tours since before COVID — with the previous open house happening in 2016.

The tours coincided with a rare cold-weather record in La Crosse. Saturday’s low of 40 degrees tied the La Crosse low for September 7th — last reached in the 1980s. It was the first time in exactly 1,300 days, roughly three years, that the city had a cold-weather record temperature.

The event showed modern technology used by forecasters to predict and track weather patterns throughout the area, including 50 computer screens.

NWS meteorologist Todd Shea said visitors may have expected the office to look different before they took the tour.

“They probably have envisioned wall-to-wall screens, and it’s all dark, and things like that,” Shea said. “By coming to the open house, they get a chance to see kind of a demonstration of our work stations, and learn a little bit more about what we do on a day-to-day basis.”

Shea added that their building has newer equipment and larger video screens than it had during the last open house.

He noted one purpose of the event was to teach people “how we’re approaching with big winter storms and big heavy snows, or the chances of tornadoes, kind of how we word it a little differently and more accurate, maybe, as the storms come in.”

Local government offices brought trucks and other heavy equipment to the weather station to be displayed during the open house, as well.