Winter getting shorter in 80% of major US cities, new data shows

 

Pedestrians in New York City on 25 February. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

 Researchers find that across 195 US cities, winters are on average nine days shorter than they were in 1970-1997

by  Sara Braun in New York

 For the millions of people across the United States who have spent the last month digging themselves out of above-average levels of snow and ice, this winter has felt especially long and harsh. But the typical winter is actually getting shorter in 80% of major US cities scrutinized by researchers, according to new data released by Climate Central, an independent climate science and communication group.

Researchers found that across 195 US cities, winters are on average nine days shorter today than they were from 1970 to 1997, as the climate crisis progresses.

For the purposes of the study, analysts defined winter as the coldest 90 consecutive days of the year during the past period, 1970-1997, and then compared the frequency of winter-like temperatures during the most recent 28-year period, 1998-2025. Across the country, they found that winter-defining temperatures are arriving later and ending earlier than in the 20th century.

Cities across the US south-east, north-east, upper midwest and south have experienced the largest average decrease in winter days, according to the research.

Juneau and Anchorage in Alaska have seen winters shrink the most, by 62 and 49 days, respectively. Approximately 15% of the 295 cities analyzed saw winters lengthen, particularly along the California coast and in the Ohio valley.

Ironically, the new data coincides with one of the most brutal winters in recent memory, including this week’s historic nor’easter blizzard, which meteorologists have said is the strongest storm in a decade. More than 2ft (61cm) of snow was recorded in parts of the north-eastern US, with more than 3ft (91cm) falling in Rhode Island – surpassing totals from the north-east’s historic blizzard of 1978.

“A shorter winter doesn’t mean no winter,” Mathew Barlow, professor of climate science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said on Friday. “Another important piece of [research] is that we expect greater precipitation intensity as the climate warms.”

The storm caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of people and forced public officials to implement temporary travel bans in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, among other states.

 

However, January’s storm was likely caused by the stretching of the polar vortex, a vast circular ribbon of planetary wind. Research published last year found that the stretching of the polar vortex in this way is contributing to extreme weather in the US and that global heating, counterintuitively, could be playing a role in accelerating this process.

While speaking of Trump’s “ridiculous” argument against global warming, Barlow said: “If you wait for the cold day and you say: ‘Oh, it’s cold’ and you ignore all the other warm days, that’s not an honest attempt at assessing the data in any way, shape or form.”

Previous Guardian reporting acknowledged that a single winter storm in one region of one country tells us very little about longer-term, global climate trends. The world is not only undeniably heating up, but in countries like the US, winters are warming at a faster rate than other seasons.

Even with evidence of the devastating impacts of global warming in plain sight, Trump has made dismantling environmental protections a key priority of his second administration. On 12 February, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked a core scientific determination, known as the endangerment finding, that gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution.

Since 2009, this policy has allowed the EPA to limit heat-trapping pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources. More than a dozen health and environmental justice non-profits have sued the EPA over the move.

Warmer, shorter winters have significant consequences for both humans and the environment, including reduced water supply, decreased summer crop yields and worsening allergy seasons.

“These are not just impacts that you see when you look out the window or affect if you are able to drive into work,” Barlow said. “These are also pretty substantial changes to ecosystems, the health of our natural community and our water resources.”

Shorter winters are also creating challenges for local economies. The multibillion-dollar winter recreation industry faces challenges from rising temperatures and reduced snow and ice cover. In certain parts of Colorado, ski resort visits are down 20% this year amid severe snow drought.

“It’s important to keep in mind that extreme events, even extreme cold events, are still going to occur, even if they’re occurring less frequently,” said Barlow. “As winter gets warmer, we sort of lose the practice and lose the resources in place to deal with these extreme events. When we do still get substantial snow, there are just fewer people to plow.”

Fortes chuvas: veja fotos do segundo dia após tragédia em Juiz de Fora (MG). Até o momento há 46 mortos e 19 desaparecidos na cidade; município está em estado de calamidade pública

by Yasmin Silvestre

 

As fortes chuvas que atingiram o estado de Minas Gerais na terça-feira (23) deixaram, até a última atualização, 46 mortos e 21 desaparecidos segundo informações do CBM-MG (Corpo de Bombeiros Militar de Minas Gerais). 

 

A grande tragédia resultou na destruição de grande parte dos municípios de Ubá, Juiz de Fora e Matias Barbosa. Em razão do forte temporal, as cidades entraram em estado de calamidade público e um plano de contingência precisou ser instaurado.

De acordo com os Bombeiros, ambas as cidades contabilizam mais de 3500 famílias desabrigadas e desalojadas após a situação de calamidade. Ao todo, 208 pessoas foram retiradas com vidas dos escombros causados pelas enchentes.

 

Imagens da Itatiaia cedidas à CNN Brasil mostram como ficou Juiz de Fora no segundo dia após o forte temporal. Algumas casas se encontram destruídas, com destelhamento. Escavadoras estão retirando os escombros causados pelo deslizamento de terra.

Veja a seguir:

Buscas e identificação dos corpos

As buscas feitas pelos Bombeiros e a Defesa Civil seguem intensas pelas pessoas desaparecidas. Segundo o CBMMG (Corpo de Bombeiros Militar de Minas Gerais), o trabalho não vai parar. “Vamos atuar dentro do protocolo, respeitando os limites de segurança, mas empenhando as equipes, assim como já fizemos na última madrugada”, afirma o tenente Henrique Barcellos, em entrevista à Itatiaia.

Além disso, a Polícia Civil de Minas está realizando a identificação e a liberação dos corpos encontrados após o temporal. Até o momento há 46 mortos e 19 desaparecidos em Juiz de Fora, e 6 óbitos e 2 desaparecidos em Ubá.

 

Assistência e monitoramento

O governo de Minas Gerais anunciou a antecipação de R$ 8 milhões para Ubá e R$ 38 milhões para Juiz de Fora, destinados a ações de recuperação e assistência às famílias. Foi decretado luto oficial de três dias em todo o estado.

A Defesa Civil e o Inmet mantêm o alerta de "grande perigo" para a região devido à saturação do solo, o que eleva o risco de novos deslizamentos de terra e inundações, mesmo com chuvas de menor intensidade.

 

Em comunicado oficial nas redes sociais, a Prefeitura de Juiz de Fora informou que já foram registrados ao menos 42 mortes, 20 desaparecidos, 20 soterramentos e 3 mil desabrigados. Até o momento, são 584 milímetros de chuva acumulados no período, que tornam o mês de fevereiro o mais chuvoso da história da cidade.

 

 

 

'We prepare for the wrong disasters': Earth's fight against encroaching saltwater

US Army Corp of Engineers vessels in the Mississippi River use pipes to move dredged silt to hold back saltwater intrusion in 2023 (Credit: Getty Images)

by Ekpali Saint

 

From The Gambia to the US, sea salt is increasingly seeping into the freshwaters people need for drinking and producing food.

Someone turns on the tap for drinking water in New Orleans, but the water is salty. In Bangladesh, farmers are forced to turn previously fertile land into brackish ponds to raise shrimp. In The Gambia, a farmer watches her crops wither and fail, doused in salt.

Around the world, previously reliable coastal freshwater supplies are turning to salt, invaded by seawater. This is the strange, slow-moving crisis of saltwater intrusion, and it is increasingly affecting communities around the world. 

Saltwater intrusion refers to the inland movement of saline water – from the ocean or sea – into freshwater aquifers. It is impacting low-lying countries like The Gambia, Vietnam and Bangladesh most so far, but is a global problem, including for the US. All continents except Antarctica are projected to have coastal areas with at least 1km (0.6 miles) of inland saltwater intrusion by 2050.

Saltwater intrusion is a perfect example of a slow-onset climate crisis – Robert Young

 

 

This encroaching saltwater tends to occur gradually over an extended period but presents a long-term devastating impact on drinking water sources, rice farming and coastal communities around the world, says Robert Young, a professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University in the US.

"Saltwater intrusion is a perfect example of a slow-onset climate crisis," he says. Too often, we focus on big events like storms, and don't pay attention to other changes happening more slowly, he says. "We prepare for the wrong disasters, [but slow-onset climate effects] are the ones that can really impact the future of coastal communities, especially in the developing world. 

Encroaching salt 

In the US, saltwater intrusion is already present in many coastal aquifers, and is threatening farms and drinking water supply, especially in low-lying south Florida, where the vulnerable Biscayne Aquifer is the primary source of freshwater. Scientists have found wells in Rhode Island to be contaminated by saltwater. Residents of Louisiana have even begun to notice a salty taste in their tap water, The Guardian reported, and in 2023 the Louisiana state governor requested a presidential emergency declaration due to its impacts.

Saltwater intrusion into drinking water is not just unpleasant. Studies have found that populations drinking saline water are at greater risk of adverse health outcomes including high blood pressure and health issues in pregnancy.

 

The intrusion often happens at the boundary or interface between saltwater and freshwater. The position of the salt depends on the balance between sea level and the water levels on land, says Holly Michael, a coastal hydrogeologist at the University of Delaware in the US. "Any process that tips that balance one way or the other is going to cause that salt front to move inland," she says. 

This process is being worsened by climate change leading to rising temperatures, decreases in rainfall and a global increase in sea levels, says Michael.

In some places, including the US, the excessive extraction of groundwater for demands such as domestic, agricultural and industrial has also contributed significantly to saltwater intrusion, letting underground saltwater intrude into soil and rivers. 

Trouble for farmers 

But it's coastal farmers in some of the world's poorest countries who are already the most impacted by saltwater intrusion.

Nurse Senneh was a child when she started growing rice with her parents in Sankandi, a small mangrove-rich village of about 600 people in The Gambia. Her parents taught her that rice seedlings thrive in water, so the crops should only be cultivated during the wet season, when plenty of rain supports irrigation. 

 

The practise had worked for the family for generations: "My father was not wealthy," says Senneh, now 59. "He did hard labour to take care of the family, but during the rainy season we had a bumper harvest to take care of the family." 

I had to leave because of the saltwater intrusion. Now, the entire rice field affected is left uncultivated – Nurse Senneh

Senneh began rice cultivation on her own in 1987, soon after she got married. Bumper harvests from her field, she says, helped feed her family, but started to dwindle when saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean began to creep into her one-hectare (2.5-acre) rice field some four years ago. 

The situation was completely unfamiliar to Senneh. She began seeing stunted growth and lower yields in her rice crops and, despite efforts to limit the impacts, had to move her cultivation elsewhere.

The Gambia is among the world's lowest-lying countries, and saltwater intrusion was first reported here in the 19th Century. But it is climate change that is now primarily responsible for saltwater intrusion, says Sidat Yaffa, a professor in climate change and agronomy at University of The Gambia.

 The Gambia River, which gives the country its name and is one of West Africa's longest navigable waterways, is the main source of freshwater for The Gambia's rice cultivation. Rice needs a lot of water to grow: some 2,500 litres (550 gallons) is required to produce just 1kg (2.2lb).

Saltwater intrusion can leave previously fertile land barren and useless for growing crops (Credit: Lena Nian/ BBC)

The Gambia River is almost at sea level and seriously affected by saltwater intrusion, carrying saline water up to 250km (155 miles) inland, where it empties in tributaries commonly used for rice production, says Yaffa. At the same time, he adds, rising temperatures have caused the country's annual rainfall to decrease by about 30% since the 1970s, slowing groundwater recharge and making soils yet more salty.

"Now we have less rainfall and less freshwater coming from rainfall," Yaffa says. Instead, "we have more brackish water pushing its way upstream from the Atlantic Ocean that empties in the Gambia River."

Pushing back

Between 2009 and 2023, The Gambia saw a 42% reduction in the areas used for rice cultivation and a 26% drop in production due to saltwater intrusion, according to a 2024 impact assessment for The Gambia's National Environment Agency. These changes are concentrated in the traditional rice-growing sector, which provides a living for thousands of people in the country. This new reality threatens food security in a country where 91% of the extremely poor are farmers. 

 Senneh is not a passive farmer. Once she started noticing the problem, she constructed a makeshift dike, which involved filling bags with mud and burying them in the ground to prevent saltwater from advancing further into her farm. Despite trying three times, however, she says the solution never worked.

 

She eventually abandoned the farm. "I had to leave because of the saltwater intrusion," says Senneh. "Now, the entire rice field affected is left uncultivated." 

Senneh now cultivates on a small piece of land she owns nearby, but says she gets less than a third of what she used to and that her seven children no longer eat well. "I feel very bad because my family often ate to their satisfaction but not anymore. This alone is a burden," she says. Senneh now buys a bag of imported rice for 2,200 Gambian dalasis (£23/$30). "I never thought there would be a time I would buy rice," she says. "It is very hard on me."  

Rice is a crucial food source for subsistence farmers in The Gambia, and while the country actually imports the majority of its rice, buying this is unfamiliar to many. It is also unaffordable, says Yaffa, in country where the average monthly salary is less than 5,000 Gambian dalasis (£51/$69). 

 

Holding back salt 

Farmers in other low-lying areas around the world, from Vietnam to the Mediterranean coastline to areas of the US coastline including Florida and the Delmarva Peninsula, are facing the impacts of saltwater intrusion. In Bangladesh, some small-scale farmers have reacted to their lands being inundated by saltwater by converting them to brackish ponds to raise shrimp, which can both contaminate more soils and lead to conflict among coastal residents. 

Women in Khulna, Bangladesh, carry water from a distant freshwater source after local drinking water was impacted by saltwater intrusion and other issues (Credit: Getty Images)

But people are also fighting back against this encroaching saltwater.

Florida, for example, has installed salinity control structures, which help separate fresh water and saltwater. "What Florida did was put tide gates on canals, so that prevents saltwater from coming back up," says Michael. "They open the gates during low tide, and then that allows the water to drain off."

Similarly, Vietnam – where a severe drought in 2016 worsened by El Niño pushed saltwater 90km (56 miles) inland – has built multimillion-dollar sluice gates to protect the Mekong Delta, its rice basket, against saltwater intrusion. These projects, however, have often been plagued by failures.

 

Another engineering solution in Florida is wastewater injection, says Michael, where wastewater is collected, treated and released into the river. "This helps to push back saltwater in the groundwater. It raises the water levels on land and kind of replaces the water that was extracted."  

China and the Netherlands have also adopted the wastewater treatment approach. In China's Yingli Town for example, treated rainwater are directly used on farmlands as irrigation water. 

In The Gambia, Yaffa says, a dike was constructed back in 1994 to prevent saltwater from intruding into rice fields. "The dike was a good solution," he says. "[But it] is in a bad shape now and needs a lot of repairs."