The recent ice storm is just one example of extreme weather patterns occurring all over the world.

Throughout the past year, especially this winter season, there have been extreme weather patterns in every part of the country, mainly due to the harsh effects of climate change.

 January 2023 was recorded as the sixth-warmest January on record, at an average temperature of 35.2 degrees throughout the U.S. There was also significant rainfall, which made it the third-wettest January on record. This caused California, which had been in a chronic state of drought, to experience 10 different storms throughout the month, resulting in landslides and floods, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

February brought no relief, with ice storms and tornadoes across the Midwest and Texas, along with freezing temperatures in the Northeast. Later that month, there were both unusually warm and cold temperatures across the country, with California experiencing winter storms while the Southeast experienced spring-like weather, CNN reported.

As the rest of 2023 went on, many tornadoes hit across the country, causing power outages, damage to homes, floods, and deaths of some civilians. Then, as the year inched closer to summer, the fires struck.

Wildfires started in Canada in May, worsening air quality throughout the world. Smoke from the fires quickly traveled to the U.S. and several states had to issue air quality alerts. The wildfires continued for the whole of spring and summer, getting worse as the seasons progressed.

As July rolled around, everyone was in for a shock: July 3 through 6 were the hottest four days on record throughout the world, with a global temperature (average of sea and land surface air) of 63.01 degrees F, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. 

“The average global surface temperature in July was 2.02 degrees F (1.12 degrees C) above average, ranking it as the warmest July in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) 174-year record,” NOAA noted.

Because of this unusually high temperature, wildfires had even more opportunities to intensify.

In August, the country was devastated as the island of Maui suffered a terrible wildfire that killed around 110 people. This was thought to have happened because of climate change and non-native plants on the island.

“When the air is hotter it can hold more water vapor, so that means you get more water evaporating from plants, and that dries them out,” Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, told Time.

One way of trying to reduce the chance of fires is to bring back more native plants that are used to a specific type of climate.

Later in August, California was overwhelmed by Tropical Storm Hilary, which was the first storm of its kind to hit the state in 84 years, AP reported. At the end of the month, Florida was hit by more hurricanes, which caused $371 million in agricultural losses and damages.

As school started, the weather began to calm down but soon picked up again: In October there was heavy rainfall in New York that continued in November and led to flooding and winds of up to 60 miles per hour.

“Much of this region already has saturated soils from recent rain,” The New York Times reported. “The ground acts like a sponge: If you keep adding water to it, eventually, it can’t hold anymore.”

That is also why there were so many floods in California; the state was in a drought for so many years, when it got a little rain, the ground absorbed as much of it as possible. When there was even more rain, it became too much to absorb.

In December, the intense weather began to pick up again and the year closed out with many extreme storms. The East Coast continued to have heavy rainfall, which led to flooding and power outages. Around 400,000 people lost power in the Northeast and Florida, and South Carolina had an abundance of flooding. 

“It’s not just the areas that we normally see flooding that are flood-prone,” a spokesperson for Georgetown County, South Carolina, Jackie Broach, told The Associated Press. “It’s areas that we’re not really expecting to have flooding issues … It’s like a tropical storm, it just happens to be in December.”

Only one month into 2024, and the U.S. is already seeing outlandish weather: Arctic storms have left at least four dead, brought snow to the South, caused power outages to tens of thousands in the Northwest, and pummeled the Northeast with blizzard conditions. Climate researchers have hypothesized that sudden blasts of cold weather in the U.S. could be fueled by global heating, the BBC reported. The Arctic is warming up four times faster than the rest of the planet, causing changes to the circular pattern of winds called the polar vortex, which usually keeps the cold massed upon the polar region. As this pattern changes because of global warming, the cold air can move southward.

During this last month in Oregon, more than 120,000 homes and businesses were without electricity after high winds and ice brought down trees and power lines. Many trees fell during the ice storms, including one that fell on a house and killed a man. Two other people died of hypothermia and a fourth died in a fire that spread from an open-flame stove after a tree fell onto an RV, according to The Guardian. 

In Eugene, specifically, an estimated 24,000 people were left without power during the storm. Gov. Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency late Tuesday night, Jan. 16, to expedite federal resources and disaster relief. 

On Interstate 5, hundreds of people were stuck for more than 15 hours because of slide-outs due to icy conditions. Many drivers fell asleep and had to be woken up by first responders once they could drive again when the roads were cleared.

Within the last decade, the weather has gotten considerably more dramatic and damaging. During the summer, wildfires blaze through the world, causing many deaths of people and animals, damage to homes, and toxic air quality. In the winter, ice storms envelop the country, taking down trees and power lines, which leads to destruction. 

The weather seems like it will only get increasingly dangerous unless there is considerable effort taken by the world to fix the climate changes that are causing it.

Photos of Eugene during the January ice storm. – By Aria Lynn-Skov

Article by Jada Jones