New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => International => Topic started by: Mark on October 26, 2025, 08:35:29 AM
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Northern Hemisphere cold outbreaks are increasing as October nears its close, from East Asia to North America.
In Japan, the Wakkanai Local Meteorological Office issued a low-temperature advisory Friday (Oct 24) as Arctic air continues to dominate Hokkaidō. Highs again stalled in the single digits, with widespread frost and lingering snow across the north.
Across China, the National Meteorological Center’s 06:00 bulletin confirms ongoing snow in eastern Qinghai and “cold-air impacts” pushing deep through Inner Mongolia and into the northeast. Sub-freezing mornings and below-normal daytime highs now stretch across the northern tier.
In India’s western Himalaya, temperatures again slipped below zero overnight in Himachal Pradesh. Tabo registered -0.7C (31F), with the local meteorological department warning of continued snow in Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, and Chamba districts.
Meanwhile, the United States is seeing its first widespread taste of winter. Cincinnati logged a morning low of 37F (3C), the city’s coldest air since spring, as the NWS issued freeze warnings across the Ohio Valley. Philadelphia also reported its coldest night of the season so far as frost advisories expanded through the Mid-Atlantic.
GFS Total Snowfall (inches) Oct 24 - Nov 12 [tropicaltidbits.com]
From Asia to the Americas, October’s final week across the Northern Hemisphere is delivering a distinctly wintry turn — a setup in part governed by a weak start to the ‘polar vortex’ and impressive snow cover across Siberia and Mongolia.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/cold-report-greenland-cave-record
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January 2026 was dominated by sustained, continent-scale cold across much of the Northern Hemisphere, as Arctic air repeatedly plunged south into Europe, Siberia and North America.
Even according to Copernicus, which relies on the gap-filled, model-heavy ERA5 reanalysis, Europe averaged -2.34C (27.79F) for the month. That makes it the continent’s coldest January since 2010 and 1.63C below the 1991–2020 average.
The freeze was not confined to Europe.
A highly amplified, meandering jet stream displaced polar air deep into the mid-latitudes, producing widespread below-normal temperatures from Fennoscandia through Siberia and into large parts of North America.
In the United States, Washington, D.C. recorded its longest uninterrupted stretch of freezing weather since 1989.
From the evening of Jan 23 through Feb 2, temperatures at Reagan National Airport failed to rise above 0C (32F) — the capital’s most persistent deep freeze in almost four decades.
Farther north, the prolonged January freeze has left the Hudson River choked with massive ice floes:
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/northern-hemisphere-endured-deep