This past winter has been more erratic when it comes to the weather, for example on March 15 it snowed and four days later, all the snow was gone, and it was 79degrees. Around three out of those four days a blizzard happened between the High Plains and Great Lakes where Wisconsin experienced more than 2 feet of snow, and a state of emergency was declared. Other states also saw similar conditions. Rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain and hail even fell in southern Wisconsin.
Throughout the years, I’ve heard people say that the Midwest and Nebraska weather can be “bipolar” at times, where one day it could be snowing and 80 degrees the next. I think that now we can actually see the “bipolar” weather happen in real time.
Don’t believe me? Let me list another example. On March 11, the day before conferences, I woke up to snow on the ground. When I got to class, I heard Kelsey Porter, my teacher for AP English Language & Composition, say, “I didn’t know it was going to snow today,” if my memory serves correctly.
The three days before, March 8, 9, and 10, were 75, 78, and 73 respectively. As a cherry on top, on March 12 it was 67 and all the snow from the previous day was gone. Isn’t that weird? In the past, it was consistently cold with an occasional warm day which usually meant that severe weather would follow suit the same day.
This isn’t an isolated event; there are many similar instances of this happening in the rest of March and February, one in January and even recently in April. Usually, the average high temperature in March is 52, February 38.6 and January is 33.6. But this year, March’s average high was 63, February’s was 50, and January’s was 34.8.January is close to average, but March and February look like a ride on the rollercoaster.
On March 21, believe it or not, it was 96 and it beat “the day’s previous record [March 20 was 87] by a significant nine degrees and beating the month’s all time warmest temp by an amazing five degrees” according to the National Weather Service’s Omaha/Valley office.
On a similar note to the weather, did you know that in 2025, mosquitoes were spotted for the first time in Iceland? Usually, Iceland is one of the very few safe havens from mosquitoes due to its climate and high latitude. But not anymore.
Back in the U.S., the snowpack of the mountains of Colorado has been “the lowest snowpack in more than 40 years – and possibly ever” due to warmer winter days,according to Russ Schumacher of Colorado State University. As another cherry on top, the snowpack from the mountains melts into the waterways, for example the Colorado River, which other states, including Colorado itself, use as a source of water.
Combine those two with other factors, like drought, and you have a water crisis and the battle for water access.
Slightly off topic, when I was in Colorado for three days during spring break, it was warm enough that I didn’t need to wear my jacket around.
My only guess for this? Climate change and global warming.
