Texas Map Shows Counties Set to Freeze When Polar Vortex Hits
NewsweekJan 01
At Least 9 Killed as Rare Winter Storm Strikes the US South
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Above: City Park during a snowstorm on Jan. 21, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Image copyright: Michael DeMocker/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Highways and airports were closed in the southern US Tuesday as a rare and historic snowstorm swept Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
Schools were shut down for over 1M students as the first-ever blizzard warning was issued for many counties along the Texas-Louisiana border. The storm has reportedly impacted 40M people.
At least nine people have died, while around 30K homes and business establishments were left without power in southeastern Texas.
The Spin
Narrative A
As our planet warms, the Arctic is heating up four times faster than average, weakening the temperature gradient that usually keeps polar air contained. This disruption allows frigid Arctic air to escape southward more frequently, bringing severe winter storms even to places like New Orleans and Houston in the US. There's growing evidence that climate change may set the stage for more extreme winter weather events, even as the planet's average temperatures rise.
Narrative B
While some rush to link a rare winter event like this to climate change, historical data shows such extreme events have occurred naturally before. Like in the 1850s and 1940s, when hurricane frequencies were higher than today, this storm likely represents simple natural climate variability rather than human-induced changes, as alarmists have attributed.
