Extreme weather is slamming opposite sides of the globe this week. In the U.S., Winter Storm Fern moved into parts of the country last weekend, followed quickly by one of the worst outbreaks in decades. A bomb cyclone is projected to hit the Southeast over the weekend. Meanwhile, in southern Australia, a heat dome is shattering records, with temperatures hitting 120°F—the nation’s most severe heat wave in 16 years. 

While it’s hard to directly link any single weather event to climate change, a warming planet may mean that simultaneous global extremes of all types become common. 

“You can’t truly assign any specific single weather event to climate change,” says Gary Lackmann, professor in the department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at NC State University. That said, scientists are getting better at gauging how much climate change makes such events more likely or severe. As greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, they trap heat, warming air and ocean temperatures and driving shifts in weather patterns. As Lackmann puts it: “[Climate change] tilts the odds a bit toward more extreme events.”

From heat waves to snowstorms, hurricanes to droughts, extreme weather has always been natural. “We’ve had extreme weather as long as we’ve kept weather records,” says Lackmann. But research shows climate change is making these events more frequent and intense. “What we’re finding is that the most extreme events’ intensity and frequency almost certainly carry the mark of climate change,” says Marshall Shepherd, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia and former president of the American Meteorological Society. 

In the U.S. alone, the number of billion-dollar disasters has risen since the 1980s—the country averaged about three such events yearly in the 1980s, compared to 20 annually over the past decade. 

Attribution studies, which measure climate change’s impact on individual weather events, show it’s amplifying destructive, fatal weather. A 2025 study found global warming made January’s Los Angeles fires 35% more probable. The 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave—where temperatures hit 120°F—would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, according to a report. World Weather Attribution also analyzed Australia’s recent heat and found that extreme temperatures from the 5th to 10th were made 1.6°C hotter due to climate change.

A hotter planet increases the chance of extremes—whether that’s heat domes that send temperatures soaring for days or slow-moving hurricanes that leave more water in their wake.  

Warmer ocean temperatures can fuel stronger storms. “When warm water is next to very cold land, there’s a huge temperature difference,” says Lackmann. “Storms draw their energy from that contrast.”

As average winter temperatures warm faster than any other season, we could see changes in the type of precipitation that falls. If temperatures rise above freezing, precipitation that once would have been snow might come down as rain instead. A warmer atmosphere also holds more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall, worse flooding, or even intense snowstorms. 

“Storms are a natural part of Earth’s system and aren’t going away,” William Ripple, co-lead author of the 2025 report, told TIME in an email. “We aren’t losing storms—we’re getting ones supercharged with extra water and energy.” 

Meanwhile, hotter days are becoming more frequent—the past 11 years have been the hottest on record. 

“Yes, heat waves can occur naturally, but in this climate change era, they’re amplified,” says Shepherd. 

There’s no sign of this slowing down. The latest World Meteorological Organization forecast predicts Earth’s temperatures are likely to stay at or near record levels from 2025 to 2029. 

“What used to be a rare, unusually hot day is now much more common, becoming part of our new normal weather,” says Ripple. “Because of this, heat waves are happening more often, lasting longer, and reaching higher temperatures.” 

It’s clear that frigid temperatures and heavy snow in no way disprove climate change. “People will say things like, ‘Hey, it’s snowing—so global warming can’t be real,’” says Shepherd. “I tell them, ‘No, that just means it’s January in winter.’”