At nearly 70 degrees, Christmas Day 2025 in Raleigh was unseasonably warm. WRAL made it the topic of a climate change report that even included quotes from Florida visitors who were “sad it’s not a white Christmas.” Y’all. The last time Raleigh had a white Christmas was 90 years ago.
“Unseasonably” implies the existence of a winter season. WRAL was unwilling to be so hasty.
Headlined “70-degree Christmas a sign winter is losing its cool,” WRAL’s story relied on spoon-fed spin from an outfit called Climate Central. “We use science and technology to generate thousands of local storylines and compelling visuals that make climate change personal and show what can be done about it,” the group boasts.
Climate Central meteorologist Shel Winkley told WRAL that winter was “losing its cool” and becoming ever warmer, which was bad because “warmer winters affect snowfall, water supplies and ripple into spring, allergies, summer fruits, and the sports and recreation we love.” Let’s grant that allergies are unpleasant, but few of us are apoplexed by the idea of longer growing seasons and more outdoor activities.
Nevertheless, what prompted WRAL to eulogize winter was a single warm day in December — precisely the kind of “unconvincing, and at worst plainly dishonest” climate coverage that President Barack Obama’s undersecretary for science in the US Department of Energy, Dr. Steven E. Koonin, warned about in his book “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.”
Weather is different from climate, Koonin explained. The “data and research literature are starkly at odds” with media reports that “[s]torms are becoming more common and more intense, and rising greenhouse gas emissions are going to make it all a lot worse.” The World Meteorological Society, for example, had proclaimed that “any single event … cannot be attributed to human-induced climate change.” Not even an unseasonably warm Christmas.
January arrived, and so did winter, letting Raleigh know like a glacial Mark Twain that reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. Raleigh’s weather forecast warned of a dangerous winter storm and cold snap. On Jan. 23, WRAL said this Jan. 24–25 event could be a “crippling ice storm” with widespread, long-lasting power outages worsened by “bitter cold.”
A week later, WRAL warned of potentially 3-6 inches of snow on Jan. 31 followed by “extreme cold.”
One might think that having to admit to weeks of “bitter” and “extreme cold” in winter shortly after declaring that winter had permanently “lost its cool” would be fatal to climate fearmongering. Not a bit. Climate change advocates thrive on such reversals. They blame climate change for taking away what they had planned to blame on climate change.
Prompted by the intensity of the ice storm forecasts, WRAL sought to make sure people were given Climate Central’s take: “Climate change is reshaping the weather patterns that most often knock out power — increasing the frequency, intensity and reach of storms that strain an aging electrical grid.” Suddenly, North Carolina’s lack of winter was full of bad winter storms. Climate Central’s answer? “Cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the group said, would ease growing stress on the power grid and give utilities more time to adapt.”
Fortunately, North Carolina’s utilities obtained an emergency order from the US Department of Energy to operate power plants at maximum output levels “notwithstanding air emissions or other permit limitations.” Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress’s request of Jan. 26 specifically pointed to extreme low temperatures and subsequent high demand load expected on Jan. 27.
Daring to risk more emissions than follow Climate Central’s advice, Duke was able to avoid blackouts. On Jan. 27, Duke increased its electricity output from the previous day by 10.5% from coal power plants and 23.0% from natural gas power plants. Zero-emissions nuclear power, as usual, operated at peak production throughout.
Meanwhile, the president did something he wasn’t supposed to do. WRAL reported:
As snow and ice spread across North Carolina over the weekend, President Donald Trump pointed to the cold as evidence that climate change is exaggerated.
“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States,” Mr. Trump wrote that Friday on Truth Social, adding, “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???”
Trump’s post caused WRAL to sound like Koonin and write about “what the science actually says.” WRAL then accused Trump of “a common misunderstanding: confusing short-term weather with long-term climate trends.” After all, “scientists caution against using a single storm to draw conclusions about climate change.” Right!
Will WRAL heed those scientists and cease writing alarmist reports using a single weather event — a warm Christmas Day, a forecast ice storm — to draw conclusions about climate change? Were that to happen, it might well be said that hell experienced climate change.
