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Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025

Does cold weather disprove human-caused climate change?

Sue Bin Park, Skeptical Science
no

The planet continues to warm due to human activity; bouts of cold weather don’t change this. 

Satellites around the world measure temperatures at different places throughout the year. These are averaged to calculate annual global temperatures. 

The past ten years (2015-2024) have been the ten hottest since modern record-keeping began in 1850, and 2024 was the all-time hottest. The last time Earth had a colder-than-average year was 1976. 

Weather refers to meteorological conditions —  heat, humidity, precipitation, etc. — in a given moment, while climate represents patterns of weather over time.

Cold snaps still occur, but they’re becoming less common as Earth warms from human emissions of heat-trapping gases.

See a full discussion of this at Skeptical Science

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