Wesley Hoague protects himself from the cold as he adjusts his pair of goggles while heading to class at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in Milwakee on Jan. 23. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Wisconsinites are a hardy bunch. If anyone needed proof, it's in data kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, which reportedly shows Wisconsin is home to 10 of America's 52 coldest cities in the winter.

That's the most of any state, according to a report by USA Today.

The city in Wisconsin with the coldest winter weather is Eau Claire, which comes in at No. 11 nationwide with an average winter temperature of 17.5 degrees.

USA Today compiled its list based on analysis of the data kept by NOAA, which doesn't keep its own coldest cities list. According to the newspaper, here are all the Wisconsin cities that made the list:

■ No. 11: Eau Claire: 17.5 degrees

■ No. 17: Green Bay: 19.4 degrees

■ No. 21 (tie): Appleton and Oshkosh: 20.0 degrees

■ No. 22: La Crosse: 20.5 degrees

■ No. 24: Madison: 21.6 degrees

■ No. 26: Waukesha: 21.9 degrees

■ No. 38: Milwaukee: 24.9 degrees

■ No. 40: Racine: 25.2 degrees

■ No. 52: Kenosha: 25.9 degrees.

Before Wisconsinites feel too sorry for themselves, consider winter's two coldest cities, both of which are in Alaska: Barrow is the nation's coldest city in winter at 11.7 degrees below zero on average. Fairbanks came in at 4.5 degrees below zero.

Iowa had eight cities in the top 52, while Minnesota had six.

In the northern parts of Wisconsin, temperatures dip below 30 below zero almost every winter, according to the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

And a tiny spot in Wisconsin named Gile recently gained fame when residents named it the "snow capital of the nation." The hamlet was hit by about 6 feet of snow in the course of just nine days.

Apparently none of those communities was big enough to make USA Today's list of coldest cities.

A spokeswoman for the Climactic Data Center said the agency tracks temperatures by station but doesn't maintain its own national list by city.

Milwaukee came in only 38th on USA Today's list, but Milwaukeeans experienced unusually low temperatures last month.

November was the 11th-coldest on record for Milwaukee, according to the National Weather Service. The average was 32.4 degrees — 6.6 degrees below normal.

Apparently, a lot of people wonder about Wisconsin's chilly climate. When typing "Why is Wisconsin" into a Google search, the search engine offers four auto-complete suggestions: "Why is Wisconsin the Badger state," immediately followed by "so cold."

Other suggestions are "the best state" and "known for drinking."

In online forums, some Wisconsin residents mention a possible connection between the latter and the temperatures.