#winter-shortening

#winter-shortening

California's Sierra snowpack peaked at only 73% of average on February 25, 2026, and has since diminished. The Northern Sierra recorded just 10% of normal snow levels by mid-April.

Kennedy predicts hot and dry conditions from the west will shift eastward later this week, allowing for a noticeable warm-up and shift towards spring-like conditions.

The study highlights how rapid Arctic warming increases the frequency of extreme weather events, particularly concurrent heatwaves across Europe and eastern Asia.

The tilt of the Earth's axis as it orbits around the sun causes seasons. Different parts of the world receive different amounts of sunlight depending on that angle. In the Northern Hemisphere, we experience winter from December to March, while the Southern Hemisphere soaks up the sun.

Wind chill is a measure of how quickly bodies lose heat when you combine low temperatures with high winds. And wind chill conditions can be dangerous. "The stronger the winds [and] the colder it is, the more likely you are to develop frostbite in a short amount of time or hypothermia," says Jessica Lee of the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

A bomb cyclone produced freezing temperatures across a large portion of the US from the Gulf coast to New England, bringing heavy snow to North Carolina where two were killed in storm-related conditions, and setting records in Florida, where officials warned of ice and falling iguanas. About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern portion of the US,

An extraordinarily warm and mostly sunny January has left the snowpack across California's Sierra Nevada far smaller than usual - 59% of average for this time of year, state water officials announced Friday as they held the season's second snow survey. "We are now about halfway through the typically wettest part of the year," said Andy Reising, manager of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources.