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After a summer of record-breaking heat, vast swaths of the United States are now grappling with extreme cold as a brutal Arctic blast brings snow squalls, deadly ice and life-threatening wind chills. As unprecedented heat makes way for cold, it can provide fuel for climate-change deniers who point to freezing temperatures as evidence that global warming is overstated. But scientists are clear: cold extremes will still occur even as winters warm overall. Global heat records outpace cold records — 2023 was the hottest year on record by a huge margin. And even as the US struggles to cope with intense...

Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes the central and eastern United States in killer cold, a study finds. The study in the journal Science Thursday is the first to show the connections between changes in the polar region and February’s Valentine’s Week freeze that triggered widespread power outages in Texas, killing more than 170 people and causing at least $20 billion in damage. The polar vortex normally keeps icy air trapped in the Arctic. But warmer air weakens the vortex, allowing it...

With a seeming rise in the occurrence of snow days, blizzards and icy travel, the common belief that climate change isn’t happening comes as no surprise. Scientists stress that locally wintry weather conditions are not indicators of changes in climate, and weather conditions in one part of the world are not representative of what’s occurring globally. “It’s like saying, 'if everyone around me is wealthy, then poverty is not a problem,'” Peter Frumhoff, the Union of Concerned Scientists science and policy director and chief climate scientist, told CNN. Scientists point to hard data, including temperature measurements on land and water...

Just when you thought the Big Freeze couldn’t get any worse, here’s Al Gore to twist the knife. It’s bitter cold in parts of the US, but climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann explains that’s exactly what we should expect from the climate crisis. https://t.co/6UfJ9Xxpq6 — Al Gore (@algore) January 4, 2018 Yep. Where others might see a crisis, Al Gore has spotted a Rahm-Emanuel-style opportunity to promote his renewables scam. This bitter cold, he wants you to know, isn’t a sign that his global warming theory is a busted flush. It’s a sign that he’s even more right than ever...