Envisioning a Climate-Resilient Future
Wisconsin continues to experience significant climate change impacts, including rising temperatures, increased precipitation, and more frequent extreme weather events. This summary report serves as the 2026 update to the 2021 Assessment Report: Wisconsin’s Changing Climate. This report explains the issues and impacts of our warming climate on Wisconsin residents and provides practical tools to help communities, businesses, and resource managers build resilience.
Key Themes
Wisconsin’s climate will continue to become warmer and wetter, requiring coordinated action across communities, businesses, industries, and natural resource managers. WICCI identifies four priority areas.
Expect More Extreme Events
A warmer climate in Wisconsin has led to unusually pronounced extreme weather events in recent years, resulting in rising costs. As Wisconsin’s climate continues to become warmer and wetter, Wisconsinites should expect more rapid shifts between very wet and very dry weather conditions and related extreme weather events.
Building Community Resilience
Communities benefit from adopting climate-smart strategies, including nature-based solutions (like using natural landscapes to manage water), embracing clean energy, and making infrastructure resilient and sustainable.
Adjusting to Rapidly Changing Natural Spaces
Wisconsin’s forests, wetlands, and recreational areas are changing rapidly. Hunters, anglers, conservation managers, and outdoor enthusiasts will need to adjust to changing conditions and adopt practices to protect ecosystems and support our recreation, hunting, and fishing traditions.
Strengthening the Economy
Wisconsin businesses and industries face climate-related risks but can reduce vulnerability by adapting to climate change. They can also play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adopting climate-smart approaches and resilience planning. WICCI working groups provide sector-specific guidance and resources.
Working Groups
While climate change can seem daunting, there’s hope when we work together. Wisconsin has a clear path toward resilience through collaboration and innovation. WICCI and its working groups provide the scientific assessments, tools and partnership opportunities necessary for this work.