WASHINGTON — Thousands and thousands in North America kicked off 2026 with bitterly chilly temperatures, with many saying it’s been years since they’ve skilled such frigid winter climate.
“Pipes that by no means froze on me for 15 years froze,” stated Chris Ferro, 58, from Brooklyn, New York, in regards to the abnormally chilly temperatures he skilled in January and February.
Ferro owns a number of residential properties in Albany and stated a number of days of below-freezing temperatures prevented him from doing repairs and renovations.
He stated he was grateful that not one of the pipes burst and that this winter had the identical bitter chilly he remembers from when he was younger, which contrasts with the comparatively hotter winters he skilled lately.
About six in ten US adults say they’ve been personally affected by extreme chilly climate or extreme winter storms up to now 5 years, in keeping with a brand new ballot from The Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis.
That’s a rise from an AP-NORC ballot carried out in February 2025, when about half of US adults stated they’d been affected by excessive chilly.
The discovering factors to the rising prevalence of experiences with chilly climate, or a minimum of folks’s perceptions of them, after a large winter storm introduced freezing temperatures to the East Coast and precipitated widespread energy outages within the South.
In a warming world, folks’s reactions to chilly climate are subjective. Scientific analysis signifies the primary quarter of the twenty first century was unusually heat by historic requirements — largely resulting from human-induced local weather change — and abnormally chilly winters are occurring much less ceaselessly in North America.
As a result of such a excessive chilly happens much less ceaselessly, consultants say Individuals are experiencing it extra intensely now than they did up to now and extended chilly spells are unfamiliar to many individuals, particularly youthful Individuals.
In the summertime of 2024, an AP-NORC ballot discovered that about seven in ten US adults had skilled extraordinarily scorching climate or excessive warmth waves within the prior 5 years.
Larger electrical payments, college and work cancellations, and extra
The newest survey discovered that simply up to now 12 months, Individuals’ lives have been upended in a number of methods by chilly climate.
About seven in ten Individuals say that previously 12 months, their electrical energy or gasoline payments have been larger than typical due to winter storms or excessive chilly.
About 4 in ten have skilled a work or college cancellation due to winter storms or excessive chilly, roughly one-third have skilled an influence outage, and about 3 in 10 have had a journey cancellation or delay.
Annie Braswell, 66, from Greenville, North Carolina, stated January and February felt like “it hadn’t been that chilly in 40 years” and that her utility invoice doubled in contrast with regular.
She stated it was a dramatic change from the climate she skilled final summer time when she endured many days at or above 100°F (38°C).
“I simply take life at some point at a time, and I understand these are issues that I can’t change,” Braswell stated about how she copes with the acute temperatures.
Warmth waves and excessive chilly require extra heating and cooling to maintain temperatures inside properties and buildings snug, which ends up in larger utility payments.
Electrical energy costs are rising within the US and an AP-NORC ballot from October 2025 discovered that almost 4 in ten US adults say the price of electrical energy is a “main supply” of stress for them.
Invoice McKibben, a longtime local weather activist, instructed The Related Press in a separate interview that he thinks rising electrical energy costs can have a significant political affect.
The results of chilly climate had been felt throughout broad swathes of the nation. About 6 in 10 Midwesterners, about half of Southerners, and about 4 in ten Northeasterners say they’ve skilled work or college cancellation because of winter storms or excessive chilly, in contrast with 15% of adults who dwell within the West.
Linking excessive chilly and local weather change
Amongst all the individuals who skilled some type of extreme climate occasion up to now few years – together with excessive warmth, excessive chilly, main droughts or water shortages, hurricanes or extreme tropical storms, main flooding, wildfires, tornadoes – about two-thirds consider local weather change was a trigger.
“I feel local weather change is a pure factor that occurs … to some extent it’s sped up by some issues,” similar to pollution launched from factories and the delivery business, stated Joseph Fowl, 21, a school pupil in Provo, Utah, who identifies as an unbiased.
“I feel it will increase the frequency of utmost climate is how I’d see it,” stated Fowl.
Democrats and independents who skilled any type of extreme climate occasion are a lot likelier than Republicans to see local weather change as a trigger.
There’s a very massive hole between conservative Republicans — solely about three in ten who skilled an excessive climate occasion assume it was associated to local weather change — in contrast with liberal Democrats, the overwhelming majority of whom assume local weather change was concerned.
Whereas rising atmospheric temperatures are a results of world warming, scientists say that excessive chilly outbreaks throughout North America are a function of local weather change.
The Arctic polar vortex, a swirling space of low stress and chilly air that’s sometimes trapped over the North Pole all year long, can stretch down and infiltrate areas additional south.
Scientific analysis signifies such polar vortex disruptions are occurring extra ceaselessly resulting from quickly warming temperatures within the Arctic and shrinking Arctic sea ice.
Almost all Individuals have skilled some type of excessive climate not too long ago
Total, the overwhelming majority of US adults, 80%, have skilled some type of extreme climate occasion up to now 5 years, though they’re much likelier to report experiencing extraordinarily scorching climate or excessive warmth waves and excessive chilly up to now 5 years than another type of main climate occasions, together with main droughts or water shortages, hurricanes or extreme tropical storms, main flooding, wildfires, tornadoes, or different extreme climate occasions or climate disasters.
There are not any significant partisan variations in Individuals’ experiences of utmost climate, however about eight in ten Democrats who skilled any of those excessive climate occasions stated they had been the results of local weather change, in contrast with solely about 4 in ten Republicans.
