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March 13, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n No U.S. states had a record cold winter. Nine had a record hot one<\/p>\n Though it may surprise East Coasters, the story of this winter was not record cold but record heat<\/p>\n By Andrea Thompson edited by Clara Moskowitz<\/span><\/p>\n Average temperatures for December through February across the contiguous U.S. Red denotes where the winter was record warm and dark orange where it was much above average. White areas were average and light blue were below average.<\/p>\n For those in the eastern half of the country, this winter seemed like an endless slog of frigid temperatures and stubbornly persistent snow piles. So it may come as a surprise to many that nowhere in the U.S. had a record cold winter this year. Nowhere even came close.<\/p>\n What did set records was heat. The western half of the country spent the winter baking\u2014nine states had their hottest winter ever and five their second-hottest\u2014which worsened drought conditions and has raised the risks of damaging wildfires come spring and summer. So much of the country was so warm that despite the cold in parts of the east, it was the second-warmest winter on record for the contiguous U.S. in the past 131 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe grass is regreening for again for the second time this winter,\u201d climate scientist Daniel Swain of the California Institute for Water Resources told Scientific American in early February from his home in Colorado.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n And for much of the eastern U.S., the winter was actually around average. Eight states had below average temperatures, but those were only in the lower third of the record books.<\/p>\n The reason it felt so cold out east and so hot out west is the same: climate change. Winter is the fastest-warming season, and cold snaps are shorter and less cold than they used to be. An analysis of more than 200 locations around the U.S. by the nonprofit Climate Central showed that the coldest winter temperatures today are seven degrees Fahrenheit (four degrees Celsius) warmer on average than they were in 1970. So when we do get a spate of chilly weather, it feels colder than it did in the past because we\u2019re not as acclimated to it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a longer-term version of how 60 degrees F (16 degrees C) feels amazingly warm after a cold winter but refreshingly cool after a hot summer\u2014it\u2019s all a matter of what your body has adjusted to.<\/p>\n Climate change also means that even when the weather setup brings Arctic air surging southward, it\u2019s not as cold as it once was, making cold records increasingly rare.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen folks complain that all they hear about is record warmth (\u2018Why do you never talk about the record cold?\u2019)\u2014well, this is why!\u201d Swain wrote in a recent blog post. \u201cRecord cold has become a truly rare condition, whereas record warmth is now occurring with remarkable and disconcerting frequency.\u201d<\/p>\n Heat records will keep piling up as long as heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere. And the west has more record-shattering temperatures in store: a heat wave in the region in mid-March could send the mercury soaring above 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) in some places.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 13, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm No U.S. states had a record cold winter. Nine had a record hot one Though it may surprise East Coasters, the story of this winter was not record cold but record heat By Andrea Thompson edited by Clara Moskowitz Average temperatures for December through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[21697,898,109,1099,811,110,8310],"class_list":{"0":"post-46643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-chilly","9":"tag-east","10":"tag-hot","11":"tag-record","12":"tag-u-s","13":"tag-weather","14":"tag-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n