Sunday's near record-breaking heat made it Milwaukee's hottest day of the year (so far)

Officially, summer is still a few weeks away, but if you spent some time outside on Mother's Day, it probably felt like the season was already here.

According to the Milwaukee/Sullivan National Weather Service office, Milwaukee reached a high of 84 degrees just after 4 p.m. on Sunday. This made yesterday Milwaukee's hottest day of 2024 so far.

Temps were nearly 20 degrees warmer than Milwaukee's average May 12 high of 65 degrees and came close to the May 12 record high of 87 degrees set in 2022, said local NWS meteorologist Marcia Cronce.

There's no long-term reason for yesterday's heat, Cronce said. In fact, it's a normal part of the transition from winter to summer.

"You've got the really warm temperatures bottled in the South; now they're in the Midwest, and then you've got the cooler, more normal temperatures bottled over northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin," she said. "Little fluctuations in our upper-level flow can allow some of the warm temperatures to creep into parts of Wisconsin."

The Milwaukee area is forecast to experience one more warm day today before cooler air brings temps back down. Areas further inland from Lake Michigan are expected to see temps in the upper 70s or even 80 today, Cronce said. Temperatures will drop to the mid-50s tomorrow.

Wisconsin weather radar

Wisconsin weather warnings

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mother's Day was Milwaukee's hottest day of 2024 so far