2025–26 North American winter

Summary

The 2025–26 North American winter featured extreme contrasts across North America, being consistently frigid and wintry across the eastern half, particularly in the Northeastern United States – the most impactful since the 2020–21 winter season — while the western half of the continent experienced record warmth and lack of wintry precipitation. The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) tracked a total of 21 significant winter weather events, with 6 winter storms being rated on the Regional Snowfall Index (RSI), and 3 attaining a ranking of "Major" or higher. The winter season began early with the remnants of Typhoon Halong affecting the U.S. state of Alaska in mid-October. The prevalent pattern during the winter, beginning in December, featured a dip in the jet stream and polar vortex over the eastern half of the country. This continued into January despite a brief warm-up, evolving into a prolonged and extensive cold wave that lasted into mid-February; with the most significant and damaging event of the season occurring at the end of the month with a widespread and devastating Category 3 winter storm that affected almost the entire continent. Significant events continued into February, with the heaviest winter storm in the Carolinas in decades at the start of the month, and a historic and severe Category 3 blizzard that affected the Northeast in the second half of the month. The season concluded with a crippling and historic blizzard that affected the Upper Midwest in mid-March, and was the first Category 5 storm to be rated on the Regional Snowfall Index since the January 2016 United States blizzard. Collectively, the winter weather events this season have killed 275 people – the deadliest since the 2020–21 winter season, and together causing an estimated $11.3 billion in damages.