This weird winter was one of the warmest — and coldest — on record. It’s a glimpse of our future
A Tale of Two Winters: Record Heat and Unpredictable Cold in the US
While the United States experienced starkly different winter conditions across its regions, the outcome revealed a clear trend: the West emerged as the warmer side, whereas the East endured harsher cold. This divergence has created a vivid contrast, with some areas facing extreme weather while others saw unprecedented warmth. The final tally shows the Western states had their warmest winter on record, underscoring a significant shift in seasonal patterns.
Historical data from two sources indicates that the Lower 48 states faced their second-warmest winter in history. This phenomenon highlights how climate change is altering traditional weather norms, making record-breaking heat increasingly common even as cold snaps persist. For millions in the Midwest and East, who braved snow, ice, and sleet that hardened into “snowcrete”—a term describing melt-resistant frozen layers—the reality of this split was both striking and disorienting.
Regional Disparity and Seasonal Shifts
Though local conditions varied, the broader trend was unmistakable. The East, despite its frigid temperatures, saw few regions break cold records, while the West and Southwest were dominated by record warmth. Cities like Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, all reported their hottest winters ever, with Denver experiencing more 60-degree days than Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This suggests that winter is no longer a season of consistent cold in many parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the Arctic air outbreaks in the East were linked to disruptions in the polar vortex, which funneled cold from Canada into the region. However, these extreme conditions were not enough to offset the overall warming trend. The Western U.S. saw minimal snow cover, a sign of longer-term climate shifts that could lead to severe summer droughts and wildfire risks.
The Shrinking Cold Pool: A Climate Change Indicator
Jonathan Martin, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has tracked the Northern Hemisphere’s “cold pool”—a layer of air at about 5,000 feet where snow forms. His analysis shows that this winter marked the smallest cold pool in the 1940s data set, reflecting a decades-long contraction in its size. Despite this, the cold air that remained was concentrated over heavily populated areas, creating the illusion of a colder-than-usual season.
“It’s one of the first free atmosphere measurements that conclusively show the hemisphere is warming during wintertime,” Martin said. “The dice are loaded,” he added, “as the world warms, cold pools are likely to keep shrinking, and future winters will increasingly break warmth records.”
This shrinking cold pool is a key sign of human-driven climate change, illustrating how winter temperatures are becoming more extreme and less predictable. As the cold pool retreats, it leaves behind a warming pattern that may redefine what winter means for much of the nation in the years ahead.
