How climate change and human psychology make this US cold snap feel so harsh
(3 Feb 2026) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Little Rock, Arkansas - 26 January 2026 1. Various of a man shoveling snow from the entrance of a business ASSOCIATED PRESS Boulder, Colorado - 29 January 2026 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Swain, climate scientist, University of California Institute for Water Resources: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ "The effects of extreme temperatures, whether they're extremely hot or extremely cold, are very much dependent on context. The context of an individual human who has either experienced or not experienced that level of extreme heat or cold before, but maybe more importantly, the societal context." ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Charlotte, North Carolina - 2 February 2026 3. Mid of the North Carolina state flag waiving outside of a house ASSOCIATED PRESS Boulder, Colorado - 29 January 2026 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Swain, climate scientist, University of California Institute for Water Resources: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ "As the climate changes over time, places that used to see extreme cold conditions perhaps more often or even colder colds in the past have experienced so much warming, in recent decades, that the envelope of what we've become accustomed to is not as cold as it used to be." ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Charlotte, North Carolina - 2 February 2026 5. Wide of a partially snowy street and sidewalk 6. Close of toys inside of a snow fort 7. Mid of children playing inside of a snow fort 8. Wide of a snow fort next to a palm tree ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Hilliard, Ohio – 26 January 2026 9. Various of people sledding and playing in the snow ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Oklahoma City - 25 January 2026 10. Wide of sledders at Scissortail Park ASSOCIATED PRESS Boulder, Colorado - 29 January 2026 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Swain, climate scientist, University of California Institute for Water Resources: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ "It's quite possible that for anybody under the age of 30, in some spots this may well be the coldest week of their life. And that doesn't mean that this is the coldest temperature that this region has observed in recorded history, it just means that the background warming is so rapid. That we've rapidly become less accustomed to cold extremes of this magnitude. And so indeed they can be even more disruptive than they would have been in the past because they're a larger departure from what we've become used to." ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Detroit – 23 January 2026 12. Various of people walking in Detroit’s midtown section with temperatures well below zero ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Culkin, Mississippi - 26 January 2026 13. Wide of a fallen tree from a winter storm crushing a home 14. Wide of a fallen electric pole on a road STORYLINE: The brutally frigid weather that has gripped most of America for the past 11 days is not unprecedented. It just feels that way. The first quarter of the 21st century was unusually warm by historical standards – mostly due to human-induced climate change – and so a prolonged cold spell this winter is unfamiliar to many people, especially younger Americans. Because bone-shattering cold occurs less frequently, Americans are experiencing it more intensely now than they did in the past, several experts in weather and behavior said. But the longer the current icy blast lasts – sub-freezing temperatures are forecast to stick around in many places — the easier it should become to tolerate. Steele's sense of change is backed up data. =========================================================== Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
