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Does cold weather disprove human-caused climate change?

✇Wisconsin Watch
By: Sue Bin Park ／ Skeptical Science
Reading Time: < 1 minute

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.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

This fact brief was originally published by Skeptical Science on November 2, 2025, and was authored by Sue Bin Park. Skeptical Science is a member of the Gigafact network.

Does cold weather disprove human-caused climate change? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Is the greenhouse effect still debated among climate scientists?

✇Wisconsin Watch
By: Sue Bin Park ／ Skeptical Science
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

There has been broad agreement about the greenhouse effect for over a century.

In 1824, Joseph Fourier calculated that Earth ought to be much colder given its distance from the sun, and theorized that the atmosphere acts as a blanket, trapping heat and keeping the planet warmer than it would be otherwise.

Scientists later hypothesized that higher concentrations of greenhouse gases could raise temperatures. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius attempted to quantify this; his predictions remain on the high end of current climate models.

The basic science of the greenhouse effect is fairly simple: certain atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide trap and redirect outgoing heat; some is radiated back downward, causing heat build up and temperatures to rise.

In 2021, the IPCC concluded it is unequivocal that human emission of greenhouse gases are the primary cause of modern warming.

See a full discussion of this at Skeptical Science

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Is the greenhouse effect still debated among climate scientists? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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