Overview:
Arctic conditions, such as snow, freezing rain, and sub-freezing temperatures, are often overlooked in discussions of climate change and vulnerable communities. Poorly-insulated homes, power outages, and snow-packed roads present hazards and health risks that can be harder for low-income households to navigate.
When an Arctic blast shoved temperatures into the single digits across large swaths of the United States this week, it did more than freeze pipes and snarl traffic. It exposed a reality low-income, largely Black and Brown communities know too well: Extreme weather is never just about the weather.
From Chicago to Memphis, from Kansas City to Baltimore, snow, freezing rain and below-freezing temperatures shuttered schools, disrupted transit systems, and forced cities to open warming centers for people without reliable heat. But for residents already living on the margins, a warming center can feel more theoretical than real — especially when sidewalks are iced over, buses are delayed or canceled, and simply stepping outside carries health risks.
But what has unfolded over the last week is not simply a weather story. It is a climate justice story. Decades of housing segregation, infrastructure neglect, and economic inequality have left many Black and low-income communities less able to withstand both heat and cold, turning predictable weather events into preventable crises.
An Overlooked Threat
Heat domes and flooding usually dominate climate justice discussions. Extreme cold, on the other hand, rarely gets mentioned.
“People underestimate all the threats that come with cold weather,” says Alan Sealls, president of the American Meteorological Society. The nation’s Sun Belt, he says, is particularly vulnerable when an Arctic blast of weather is in the forecast: homes there usually aren’t built for a lingering deep freeze.
When the cold comes calling, people tend to improvise to stay warm.
“Think about house fires, triggered by the fact that people are trying to keep their homes warm. A space heater is OK if you give it space, but if you run an extension cord to it or put the cord under a rug, you create a real hazard.”
When electricity goes out and takes the heat pump with it, Sealls says, residents may turn to ovens or fireplaces, raising the risk of fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. Shoveling wet, heavy snow or ice also brings risk of heart attacks, frostbite, and hypothermia — particularly among people who overexert themselves or have chronic health conditions.
“It’s a ton of risks that are even worse for people who are very old and people who are very young,” he says.
To be clear: extreme heat events kill far more Americans each year than cold snaps.. Hurricanes, too, leave long trails of destruction and death. But cold — particularly sub-freezing temperatures that last more than a few days — carries its own cruelty.
Trapped Inside by Cold
While serious, heat emergencies often allow movement: roads remain open and cooling centers are reachable. Outreach teams can find the unhoused. If a flood or hurricane is approaching, people can usually contact authorities and find transport ahead of the danger.
Snow and ice, however, shut that system down.
“In hot weather, there are some things you can do to get away from the heat,” says Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Someone can come pick you up and get you into a cool place. In a storm with snow or ice, you may be sheltering in place for 48 to 72 hours before somebody can get to you — and they have to know you’re there.”
When ice coats sidewalks and snaps power lines, or snow cakes unplowed streets, a warming center might as well be miles away, Benjamin says. For anyone who relies on public transportation, uses a wheelchair, has to dig out a snowbound vehicle, or must walk several blocks to a bus stop, he says, the journey itself can become a medical emergency.
The danger deepens inside the home, he says. Older, poorly insulated buildings — common in low-income neighborhoods — lose heat quickly and aging furnaces can be prone to failure.
“When you think about extremes of weather, it’s often not a two-foot snowstorm,” Benjamin says. “Even subtle shifts totally change the way you do things when your house isn’t built to withstand long periods of cold.”
The Economics of Freezing Temps
Energy insecurity compounds the problem. Families struggling with utility bills may ration heat or face shutoffs altogether.
“Lower-income individuals don’t have the disposable cash to buy equipment you might use once every five or 10 years,” Benjamin says. “There’s a real resource disparity.”
The economic shock can be worse.
“For people living on the margins, often working in the service industry, if you don’t work, you don’t eat,” Benjamin says. “A snowstorm that shuts you down has a dramatic impact on income,” particularly if a person works in an industry or profession — think bus driver or grocery clerk — that doesn’t offer remote work.
Sealls said aging infrastructure amplifies all of it.
“Our population has grown. Our infrastructure is older,” he says. “There are more people living in homes that are harder to stay warm in,” especially in communities that don’t have the resources to upgrade homes.
Climate Change Makes it Worse
Climate change is tightening the vise. Warmer global temperatures are linked to disruptions in polar air patterns that can shove Arctic air south, even as summers grow longer and more punishing.
Sealls says duration matters as much as intensity.
“It’s not so much how cold it gets at one point,” he says. “It’s how long that cold lingers.”
As another round of wintry weather threatens parts of the country this weekend, both experts stressed that survival is often collective.
“When you hear there’s a storm coming, it means it’s coming,” Sealls says. “You’ve got to know your neighbors, because sometimes the farthest you can get is your nearest neighbor.”