Outside smell Wednesday yields dozens of calls from concerned citizens

Wednesday, February 12, 2025, several calls were being taken to the Fond du Lac County Dispatch Center of a natural gas smell outside in the area, and multiple more mentions of the smell were being asked about on social media.

The Fond du Lac Fire Department responded to any calls they received but no gas was found.

The culprit was a combination of very specific weather conditions and the paper mills in the Fox Valley. With a north wind, the smell emitted from the mills would normally be blown over Lake Winnebago and mix with fresh air above the surface, however, a couple times a year, warmer air above the surface keeps this surface air from mixing with the air aloft and diluting the smell, allowing the air with the mill smells to reach all the way down to Fond du Lac County.

In addition to the calls to the fire department, Alliant energy says they received 40 direct calls from concerned gas customers in the area.