Is the snow and ice across the western world really that unusual?

I didn’t think so. I was stationed in Idaho for about a year. Lots of cold, lots of snow. Anywhere in the Rockies or the Sierra Nevadas it seems to always be snowy and icy in the winter time. There have always been polar vortices that bring cold weather. Anywhere from about 38 degrees N latitude can expect snow, at least sometime. Obviously higher elevations make it more likely. It seems to have been like that for as long as I can remember. There are even stories of massive snow storms and nasty winters at or above this latitude, back in the 1600’s.

It’s winter so such cold and snow storms are not uncommon unusual at all.
If it was summer then it would be unusual.

No. We have El Niño out their in the Pacific helping to create harsh weather, and it’s not the first time.

We have cycles of brutal winters, BUT if the overall warming of the earth is going up 2 or 3 degrees it is significant. Eventually, the weather will be much much more extreme much more of the time. It will create climate refugees and mass migrations and crop trouble and property destruction. It’s a big deal.

Here in Maryland, this is the first measurable snow we’ve had in 2 years! And now we’ve had two snow storms in a week, although neither one was more than 6 inches or so. To me, this is what a normal Maryland winter is often like, but I guess since it happened so long, a lot of people are acting like it’s such an incredible thing.

Well, this is the most winter weather we have had here in 30 years.

Correction: there not their.

I don’t think cvold and snow are unusual, but the amounts aren’t the usual, at least from what I’ve experienced here in Omaha. I think it’s normal for the western part of the state. We had a winter squall last night and another few inches. Visibility was near to zero. We’re supposed to get up to 24 on Monday which will be a nice respite.

Two days ago a facebook friend posted it was 39°s, the coldest day she has experienced since moving to Florida. I wrote saying I didn’t know she just moved here, I thought she had lived here for years. She’s been here 9 years, it’s in the 30’s almost every January here, including going to the low 30’s last year.

People have amnesia.

The snow and cold in the DC-NY area was outrageous one year when I was living in TN, I don’t remember which year exactly, maybe 2009 or 10? I had friends worried about their elderly parents snowed in without heat.

When we moved to MD in the late ‘70’s the snow was as deep as my little sister was tall.

I remember being in FL one winter during college in the late 80’s and north FL had some snow. It happens now and then.

Certainly a foot of snow in MI is typical.

I grew up in NE OH. Winters there swayed back and forth. Some winters were very mild with little snow and no particularly icy periods, other times we would have snow as early as October and as late as June. No particular rhyme or reason. Only the wooly bears knew for sure.

Unusual in that winter arrives later. Which is now normal. Here in Milwaukee, we finally got a decent snowcover this week (I write this Jan 19, 2024). Christmas is rarely snowy these days.

It seems like the headlines about bomb cyclones, blizzards, and arctic temperatures that affect multiple states occur every year. It doesn’t seem all that unusual to me. But I’m from a part of the country where “winter weather” means occasional rainfall and temperatures in the high 50s.

Certainly some patterns are different. The data can attest that rainfall in California is more unpredictable than it used to be, and that wildfires are larger. It’s not one’s imagination; things have changed. But I don’t think that applies to every climactic pattern, especially a cold, snowy winter across much of the eastern and midwestern U.S.

I agree @Demosthenes. I just wonder how far we’re getting swayed.
There were reports of highways down from Kansas to Colorado.
Well, I sent out a line asking how the roads were between where I was, and another little town about 15 miles away, via a two lane highway.
A person who normally shows some common sense, and knew of the two towns (she lives in one of them) said “All highways are closed!”
I said “Come on! It’s not even that bad (a few inches) and the road crews have been out by now!”
Another person then responded “Road from A to B is clear (thanks to the road crews.) Just be careful.”

@seawulf575 That’s kind of how eastern NE is.

@JLeslie I lived in Orlando the year it snowed there. 8^O

The weather news now lists the “feels like” temperatures more than the real temperature, that is a change from years ago. It used to be we were given the temperatures and then secondarily the feels like temperature.

I saw a meme of a map of the US with crazy cold temps of -40 out in the western midwest and -10 in the eastern midwest, and then I looked it up on my phone weather app and that meme was a map with windchill temps, the regular temps were cold but not never before seen temps.

Last summer everyone was talking about Florida up in the 100°s for weeks. We weren’t. We were in the 90°s like always and then add the humidity for “feels like.” Although, I think Orlando hit 100° one day, which might have broken a record? It’s extremely rare for FL to reach 100°.

The weather news lists record breaking temps for a particular day, but that is not necessarily record breaking for all time ever. So, it sounds like records are being broken constantly.

The weather channel now names snow storms. I don’t know if all snowstorms get a name? It seems like it can be a typical snow and it still gets a name.

The 24/7 news has to keep people tuned in somehow so they make all news, including weather, a catastrophe. Keeps you tuned in days before, during, and after, and it doesn’t even need to be your part of the country.

Now, when hurricanes come the entire hurricane zone will be shown in red on TV on the national news, rather than information about wind speeds 20, 30, 50 miles out from the eye, we have to dig for it. National news talks about the evacuation like entire counties get evacuated, but in fact mandatory evacuation is within a mile or two of the water and people are supposed to stay in county to reduce traffic and reduce traffic accidents. The Keys are an exception where it takes them hours to evacuate up to the main land of Florida.

When I was in the service, I was stationed in Idaho Falls, ID. One thing I saw that dazzled me was that Wyoming had drop gates on the freeway they could use to close the freeway. This was back in the early 80’s. When snow and ice are so bad that they install drop gates on the freeway, I suspect it was not a one-off. They got hit hard most years.

^^ They have the same thing in Calif and Yellowstone, and in some places there’s a law that if you don’t have chains on your tires or snow tires you can’t travel on that road.

@JLeslie The “real feel” or “feels like” used to be referred to as the “wind chill factor.”

I just go out side to see what it “feels” like.
Colder than a witche’s tit!

^^ Are Witch’s tits cold? I find them quite warm and cozy.

@Blackwater_Park I dated a witch once upon a time. You are correct.