The first major winter storm of 2025 in the United States prompted winter weather alerts for more than 60 million people. The storm's combination of Arctic cold and heavy snow killed at least four people in early January.
What's happening?
At least 18 states along a nearly 1,500-mile-long corridor from Kansas City to Washington, D.C., were under a weather warning. Up to 18 inches of snow fell in portions of Kansas, while harder-hit parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Maryland saw around a foot of snow.
Bitter cold surged southward into the central and southern plains as well as the Gulf Coast in the wake of the storm. Temperatures tumbled in Texas, where Houston dipped to 31 degrees, and Austin fell to 23. Weslaco, Texas, set a record low of 25 as the storm moved toward the East Coast. The combination of snow cover and clearing skies saw temperatures plummet to as low as minus-15 in some spots.
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At least four people died as a result, according to Newsweek. Those deaths included an unidentified man in Texas who was found in front of a bus shelter. Nathaniel Boyd, 24, of Wichita, and Whitney Almond, 26, of Clearwater, were fatally injured Sunday in a weather-related accident on I-235 when their vehicle left the roadway and rolled several times, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported. 61-year-old Everett Carter, a public works employee in Missouri, was killed after being hit by a dump truck while removing snow from a roadway.
Why is the first major winter storm of the year important?
The polar vortex brings some of the most frigid winter air to the U.S. It's not a storm but a large, semi-permanent low-pressure system over the poles that holds icy Arctic air. The term "vortex" describes the swirling air that keeps the cold locked in place. When a portion shifts south with a dipping jet stream, Arctic outbreaks hit, sometimes powering major snowstorms as temperatures plummet.
The Arctic is warming around four times faster than the rest of the world, a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification. A recent study indicates that while rising Arctic temperatures may temper cold-air outbreaks in midlatitudes over time, other research suggests that Arctic Amplification could drive more frequent severe winter weather, including dangerous and disruptive cold snaps.
What's being done about a potentially rising risk of dangerous cold snaps?
According to a recent study, the rate of deaths linked to cold weather more than doubled between 1999 and 2022. It might seem paradoxical, but research indicates that an overheating planet is heightening the threats from cold-air outbreaks.
Being informed about risks from a warming world means exploring critical climate issues. Armed with this information, we can raise awareness by talking with family and friends about these risks.
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