Weather Insider: How climate change is impacting winter extremes

According to a new report from Climate Central, extreme cold events across the nations are becoming both warmer and shorter. On average, the coldest temperature of the year has risen by 7°F across more than 240 locations since 1970. Some places, like Cleveland, OH, have seen an increase of more than 11°F.

Other places, such as here in Palm Springs, have seen a much more muted impact. However, the geography of California has a much bigger impact on the weather than in other parts of the country. This helps explain why Palm Springs often strays from the more general national weather trends.

It's not just the coldest temperature of the year. We're also seeing a smaller number of cold temperature records being set over the last few decades. We can see a great example when looking at Austin, Texas in the graph below.