Southern and southwestern Wisconsin are under an extreme heat advisory until Friday evening. That includes Milwaukee, Madison and La Crosse. County buildings, churches and even humane societies are opening their doors so people and pets can cool off.
Temperatures in the 90s with high humidity can be brutal on people with no air conditioning or who are homeless.
Places like Madison’s Bethel Lutheran Church regularly offer daytime shelter for the homeless. Volunteer Beverly Thom said they’re only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She expects at least 70 people to come in during the heatwave.
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“We’re sending bottled water with people today so they use that tonight and tomorrow,” Thom said. “They typically go either to the (state) Capitol or to the library on days that we’re not open.”
The heat advisory was lifted for northern Wisconsin after strong thunderstorms moved through on Thursday morning.
According to Phillip Kurimski, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Green Bay, heat advisories are determined by a mix of air temperature and humidity.
“Those two will combine to create your heat index values. So for example if you have dew points in the low to mid 70s and temperatures in the low 90s, you get heat index values around 100 or so,” he said.
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