It's winter right now in the Northern Hemisphere, and just this morning, I saw a post about how the darkest 10 weeks of the year are finally over. The five weeks before the winter solstice and five weeks after it are the darkest 10, with December 21 being the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

That's the day when astronomical winter begins. Meteorological winter starts on the 1st of December, and people living in the Northern Hemisphere have already seen their fair share of crazy winter weather.

Sweden reported their lowest temperature in decades, at a whopping -48F on January 5th. The U.S. reported freezing temperatures of -30F from the northern Rockies, northern Kansas, and Iowa.

So Bored Panda reached out to a professional in the field – Meteorologist Andrew Markowitz. Lately, he too has been covering the shenanigans of the Arctic Blast in the U.S. on his TikTok channel, which has over 97k followers and 1.4M views.

Much of what we see in these pictures can be the product of extreme weather. What exactly is an extreme winter? Andrew says that it all depends on the location. The best way to determine this, the meteorologist says, would be by calculating averages.

"If your temperatures are much colder than average (more than 5 degrees or so) or you get much more snowfall than normal, then that would qualify as an extreme winter. Sometimes, this can be localized or other times more widespread."

"Some regions are much more equipped to handle winter weather than others, which is what matters the most." These are places that have frequent cold winters, so they're better prepared for this kind of weather. "8 [inches] of snow or 10 degrees in Atlanta is much different than in Boston," the meteorologist explains.

When we read about extreme cold during winter, one thing might pop up in our minds. Why is it so cold if the scientists say every year gets progressively hotter? As we mentioned earlier, 2023 was the hottest year in history. And US scientists are predicting that 2024 might be even hotter. Climate change is the reason behind this phenomenon, and we asked Andrew to give us a quick rundown of how it is affecting extreme winter events.

The first factor that influences extreme winters is the loss of Arctic sea ice. "Warming is occurring faster in the Arctic than anywhere on the planet, and this is the most noticeable impact we're seeing," Meteorologist Andrew Markowitz says. 

"Faster warming in the Arctic generally leads to warming temperatures worldwide, but [it] also can disrupt the jet stream, which would support continued extreme cold 'Polar Vortex' events. Winters will likely be milder, but extreme cold snaps will still happen," Andrew adds.

Warmer sea-surface temperatures are the second factor. Andrew tells Bored Panda that, due to climate change, rain might replace snow in seaside areas. "In areas closer to the coast, this means that snowstorms at 31 or 32 degrees would instead become rainstorms at 33 or 34 degrees with an easterly wind," Andrew explains. "So those marginal events that at one point were snow will more likely be rain. It could also argue for more intense lake-effect snow events."

The third factor is that, most likely, we will be seeing less and less snow. "Median snowfall in general is likely to decrease, and there will be fewer snow events per winter, as well as more really low snow winters," Andrew goes on. "However, big snowstorms would still occur and perhaps could have a higher ceiling, with more moisture in the atmosphere due to warming."

"Meteorology was my lifelong passion, and I think my purpose in life is to keep people informed and safe from natural disasters," Andrew tells us when we asked him what inspired him to become a meteorologist. When we think 'meteorologist,' most of us probably associate it with weather presenters. But Andrew has found a new way to reach out to people: TikTok.

"I saw social media as a way to connect with people who may no longer receive weather from TV news (because of cord cutting) and are instead trusting less reliable sources," Andrew Markowitz explains his reasoning for using TikTok and Instagram to educate people. The less reliable sources, according to him, "include weather apps and hypesters who post extreme weather solutions with no scientific validity just for clicks."

"With TikTok, I felt that this was a niche that no one had captured, and your videos could theoretically reach anyone in the world," Andrew explains his fascination. "It's very easy for misinformation to spread like wildfire without any kind of vetting, so I believe it's important for scientists to be on these platforms to spread accurate info," he adds.

Andrew is definitely right on the topic of misinformation about science online. According to the public interest research organization Advance Democracy, in 2023, there has been a surge in the amount of content denying climate change. The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is the biggest culprit, as the number of posts "more than tripled" for the second year in a row.