Six in ten U.S. adults have experienced severe cold weather or extreme winter storms in the past five years, according to a new AP-NORC poll conducted February 5-8, 2026. The finding represents a marked increase from February 2025, when about five in ten Americans reported the same experience.
The shift underscores how extreme weather, while becoming rarer in a warming climate, strikes harder when it arrives — disrupting utilities, schools, and travel across wide stretches of the country. The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,156 adults and carries a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
The past year’s toll
The economic and operational toll mounted quickly. About seven in ten Americans report higher electricity or gas bills from winter storms or extreme cold. About four in ten experienced work or school cancellations. One-third reported power outages, and three in ten faced travel delays or cancellations.
Chris Ferro, 58, of Brooklyn, New York, experienced this directly. “Pipes that never froze on me for 15 years froze,” he said, referring to residential properties he owns in Albany.
Annie Braswell, 66, of Greenville, North Carolina, faced even steeper consequences. “It hadn’t been that cold in 40 years,” Braswell said of the January and February weather. “My utility bill doubled.”
Regional variation
Impact varied geographically. About six in ten Midwesterners experienced work or school cancellations due to winter weather, compared with roughly half of Southerners, four in ten Northeasterners, and 15 percent of adults in the West.
The science of extreme cold in a warming world
In a warming world, extreme cold becomes rarer but more intense when it occurs. The Arctic polar vortex — a swirling area of low pressure and cold air typically centered over the North Pole — can stretch southward and infiltrate regions farther south.
Scientific research indicates that such disruptions are happening more frequently due to rapidly warming Arctic temperatures and shrinking Arctic sea ice, producing the kind of freeze that many Americans haven’t experienced in years.
Climate-change attribution splits by party
Overall, 80 percent of U.S. adults experienced some kind of severe weather event in the past five years. Among those who did, about two-thirds believe climate change played a role.
But partisan affiliation shaped interpretations sharply. Only about three in ten conservative Republicans who experienced an extreme weather event attribute it to climate change, compared with the vast majority of liberal Democrats.
Joseph Bird, 21, a college student in Provo, Utah, offered a more measured view. “I think climate change is a natural thing that happens,” Bird said. “To some extent it’s sped up by some things, such as pollutants released from factories and the shipping industry. I think it increases the frequency of extreme weather.”
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