Diagnosing ‘warming winter syndrome’ as summerlike heat sweeps into central and eastern US

Adobe Stock Image by Richard B. (Ricky) Rood, University of Michigan One of the most robust measures of Earth’s changing climate is that winter is warming more quickly than other seasons. The cascade of changes it brings, including ice storms and rain in regions that were once reliably below freezing, are symptoms of what I call “warming winter syndrome.” Wintertime warming represents the global accumulation of heat. During winter, direct heat from the Sun is weak, but storms and shifts in the jet stream bring warm air up from more southern latitudes into the northern U.S. and Canada. As global temperatures and the oceans warm, that stored heat has an influence on both temperature and precipitation. People enjoy the unusual heat in Chicago on Feb. 26, 2024. AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast The U.S. has been feeling this warming in the winter of 2023-24. Snowfall has been below average in much of the country. On the Great Lakes, the ice cover has been at historic lows. Late February saw a wave of summerlike temperatures spread up into the central and eastern U.S., accompanied by the potential for dangerous thunderstorms and wildfire risk. And forecasters expected another above-average warm spell in early...