The winter 2025–26 "snow drought" in the western US has been receiving a lot of attention lately, and my figure on the right here will actually be making an appearance on Yale Climate Connections next week which is super cool, so I figured I ought to get it out on my own blog before that. What we saw during the past winter in western North America was a striking contrast between significantly below-average and even record-low snowfall in the Sierras and the Cascades on the West Coast as well as, to a lesser extent, in the Rockies, juxtaposed directly against significantly above-average snowfall right across the Canadian border in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. At least some of this disparity can likely be explained by moisture and the geography of atmospheric rivers throughout the winter. However, this past winter was, notably, also one of the warmest on record in the western US, and it is my suspicion that a significant cause of this snow drought was temperature rather than precipitation. I will be looking into the 2025–26 snow drought with Dr. Flavio Lehner, and one of our goals will be to establish how much of the snow drought can be explained by temperature vs. precipitation, as this has not been thoroughly looked into yet.

Full article for The Cornell Daily Sun: https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/03/5z6poblqwoea

If asked to describe this past winter in one word, the average Cornellian would likely respond with some variation of “cold.” But the data reveals a deeper story. Here’s how this season stacked up against historical averages, recent winters and memorable deep freezes.

Full article for The Cornell Daily Sun: https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/02/coldest-air-of-the-winter-arrives-this-weekend-milder-pattern-to-follow

The coldest air of the winter so far is on the way for the weekend, with the potential for record low maximum temperatures, subzero overnight lows and feel-like temperatures as cold as negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit.