Saturday, December 24, 2005
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A warmer Milwaukee? Just move the thermometer.
That's what a local group is considering as a way to make the city more appealing to tourists and people thinking of relocating here.
The official thermometer is now located at the local airport, which just happens to be about two miles west of Lake Michigan, where temperatures are cooler, especially in spring and summer.
The president of the nonprofit Spirit of Milwaukee wonders if moving the thermometer further inland -- where temperatures at times can be 10 degrees warmer -- would give Milwaukee a warmer image.
President Dean Amhaus said if the state's largest city was officially warmer it would likely earn a better ranking on those "Best Places to Live" surveys.
"It all plays into people's perceptions," he said.
But Rudy Schaar, a data acquisition specialist for the National Weather Service, said the plan has a fatal flaw -- Lake Michigan keeps temperatures nearby cooler during the summer but also warmer into the winter, and the differences all average out.
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