By SETH BORENSTEIN and M.K. WILDEMAN

The brutally frigid weather that has gripped most of America for the past 11 days is not unprecedented. It just feels that way.

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The first quarter of the 21st century was unusually warm by historical standards – mostly due to human-induced climate change – and so a prolonged cold spell this winter is unfamiliar to many people, especially younger Americans.

Because bone-shattering cold occurs less frequently, Americans are experiencing it more intensely now than they did in the past, several experts in weather and behavior said. But the longer the current icy blast lasts – sub-freezing temperatures are forecast to stick around in many places — the easier it should become to tolerate.

“We adapt, we get used to things. This is why your first bite of dessert is much more satisfying than your 20th bite,” Hannah Perfecto, who studies consumer behavior at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote in an email. “The same is true for unpleasant experiences: Day 1 of a cold snap is much more a shock to the system than Day 20 is.”

‘Out of practice’ because of recent mild winters

Charlie Steele, a 78-year-old retired federal worker in Saugerties, New York, considers himself a lover of cold weather. In the recent past, he has gone outside in winter wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and has even walked barefoot in the snow. But this January’s deep-freeze is “much, much colder than anything I can remember,” he said.

Steele’s sense of change is backed up data.

There have been four fewer days of subfreezing temperatures in the U.S. per year, on average, between 2001 and 2025 than there were in the previous 25 years, according to data from Climate Central. The data from more than 240 weather stations also found that spells of subfreezing temperatures have become less widespread geographically and haven’t lasted as long — until this year.

In Albany, about 40 miles from Steele, the change has been more pronounced than the national average, with 11 fewer subfreezing days in the last 25 years than the previous quarter century.

FILE – Pedestrians walk down Fifth Avenue during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)

“You’re out of practice,” Steele said. “You’re kind of lulled into complacency.”

Coldest week someone under 30 may have felt

Climate change has shifted what people are used to, said several climate scientists, including Daniel Swain of the University of California’s Water Resources Institute.

“It’s quite possible that for anybody under the age of 30, in some spots this may well be the coldest week of their life,” Swain said.

Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, said, “humans get used to all kinds of things — city noise, stifling heat, lies from politicians, and winter cold. So when a ‘normal’ cold spell does come along, we feel it more acutely.”

FILE – Rafael Tavares digs his car, which was encased about 20 inches of snow, during a winter storm Jan. 26, 2026, in Lawrence, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

We forget how cold it used to be

People forget how extreme cold feels after just two to eight years of milder winters, according to a 2019 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Americans have gone through a much longer stretch than that.

Over the past 30 years, the average daily low in the continental U.S. has dropped below 10 degrees 40 times, according to meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But in the preceding 30 years, that chilly threshold was reached 124 times.

“People have forgotten just how cold it was in the 20th century,” Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler said.

FILE – A person carries grocery bags up a residential street during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

Their wake-up call came late last month, when the country’s average daily low dipped below 10 degrees three times in one week.

Regardless of how it feels, extremely cold weather presents dangers. People and vehicles slip on ice, power can go down, leaving people freezing in homes, and storms limit visibility, making commuting to work or even doing basic errands, potentially perilous. More than 110 deaths have been connected to the winter storms and freezing temperatures since January.

Shaking off our cold ‘rustiness’

As this winter’s frigid days stretch on, people adapt. University of San Diego psychiatrist Thomas Rutledge said people shake off what he calls their “weather rustiness.”

Rutledge explained what he meant via email, recalling the period decades ago when he lived in Alaska. “I assumed that everyone was a good driver in winter conditions. How couldn’t they be with so much practice?” he wrote. “But what I annually observed was that there was always a large spike in car accidents in Alaska after (the) first big snowfall hit. Rather than persistent skills, it seemed that the 4-6 months of spring and summer was enough for peoples’ winter driving skills to rust enough to cause accidents.”

FILE – Vehicles travel eastbound on Interstate 20 near a sign advising motorists of icy conditions during a winter storm Jan. 24, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

That’s Alaska. This cold snap hit southern cities such as Dallas and Miami, where it’s not just the people unaccustomed to the cold. Utilities and other basic infrastructure are also ill-equipped to handle the extreme weather, said Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

While this ongoing cold snap may feel unusually long to many Americans, it isn’t, according to data from 400 weather stations across the continental U.S. with at least a century of record-keeping, as tracked by the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Only 33 of these weather stations have recorded enough subzero temperatures  since the start of 2026 to be in the top 10% of the coldest first 32 days of any year over the past century.

FILE – A pedestrian crosses the street near Radio City Music Hall during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)

When Steele moved to the Hudson Valley as a toddler in 1949, the average daily low temperature over the previous 10 winters was 14.6 degrees (minus 9.7 degrees Celsius). In the past 10 years, the average daily low was 20.8 degrees.

As a younger man, Steele used to hunt in winter and sit for hours on cold rocks.

“I could never do that now,” he said. “I’m rusty. I’m out of practice.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By STEPHEN GROVES

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized an agreement with House Republicans Tuesday to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein this month, bowing to the threat of a contempt of Congress vote against them.

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Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 26 and Bill Clinton will appear on Feb. 27. It will mark the first time that lawmakers have compelled a former president to testify.

The arrangement comes after months of negotiating between the two sides as Republicans sought to make the Clintons a focal point in a House committee’s investigation into Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019, and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend.

“We look forward to now questioning the Clintons as part of our investigation into the horrific crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, to deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for survivors,” Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.

For months, the Clintons resisted subpoenas from the committee, but House Republicans — with support from a few Democrats — had advanced criminal contempt of Congress charges to a potential vote this week. It threatened the Clintons with the potential for substantial fines and even prison time if they had been convicted.

Even as the Clintons bowed to that pressure, the negotiating between GOP lawmakers and attorneys for the Clintons was marked by distrust as they wrangled over the details of the deposition. They agreed to have the closed-door depositions transcribed and recorded on video, Comer said.

But the belligerence is likely to only grow as Republicans relish the opportunity to grill longtime political foes under oath.

Clinton, like a number of other high-powered men, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.

Both Clintons have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls.

The Clintons initially argued the subpoenas for their testimony were invalid and offered to submit sworn declarations on their limited knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. But as Comer threatened to proceed with contempt of Congress charges, they began looking for an off-ramp.

Both Clintons have remained highly critical of how Comer has handled the Epstein investigation and argue that he is more focused on bringing them in for testimony rather than holding the Trump administration accountable for how it has handled the release of its files on Epstein.

Still, the threat of a vote on contempt charges raised the potential for Congress to use one of its most severe punishments against a former president for the first time. Historically, Congress has shown deference to former presidents. None has ever been forced to testify before lawmakers, although a few have voluntarily done so.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and FARNOUSH AMIRI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, threatening to ramp up tensions as the Trump administration warns of possible military action to get Iran to the negotiating table.

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The drone “aggressively approached” the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” and “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday.

The shootdown occurred within hours of Iranian forces harassing a U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said.

The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln, which, according to Hawkins, was sailing about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Iran’s southern coast. The military’s statement noted that no American troops were harmed and no U.S. equipment was damaged.

Then, hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed the merchant vessel Stena Imperative, the military said.

According to Hawkins’ statement, two boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the ship “at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker.”

The destroyer USS McFaul responded to the scene and escorted the Stena Imperative “with defensive air support from the U.S. Air Force,” the statement said, adding that the merchant vessel was now sailing safely.

The actions come as tensions are high between the longtime adversaries. They began to rise again as Iran’s government spent weeks quelling protests that began in late December against growing economic instability before broadening into a challenge to the Islamic Republic.

President Donald Trump had promised in early January to “rescue” Iranians from their government’s bloody crackdown on protesters, which later morphed into a pressure campaign to get Tehran to make a deal over its nuclear program. That is even as the Republican president insists Iranian nuclear sites were “obliterated” in U.S. strikes in June.

“We have talks going on with Iran. We’ll see how it all works out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. Asked what his threshold was for military action against Iran, he declined to elaborate.

“I’d like to see a deal negotiated,” Trump said. “Right now, we’re talking to them, we’re talking to Iran, and if we could work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things would happen.”

The U.S. shot down the drone hours after Iran’s president said Tuesday that he instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the U.S., marking one of the first clear signs from Tehran it wants to try to negotiate with Washington despite a breakdown of talks last summer.

Turkey had been working behind the scenes to make the talks happen there later this week as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling in the region. A Turkish official later said that the location of talks was uncertain but that Turkey was ready to support the process.

Amiri reported from New York.

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Haitians living in the U.S. were given a reprieve, at least for the time being, when a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary immigration protections that were initially put in place after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that rocked their homeland.

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U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request on Monday to pause the termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haitians while a lawsuit challenging the administration’s effort to end it proceeds. The TPS designation for people from the Caribbean island country had been scheduled to expire Tuesday.

“We can breathe for a little bit,” said Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, an Ohio city that is home to roughly 15,000 Haitians whom President Donald Trump denigrated in 2024 by falsely suggesting they ate their neighbors’ cats and dogs. “It is not a final victory, because a judge cannot redesign a country for TPS or extend the TPS, but it means a lot for us.”

The TPS designation allows roughly 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S., though it doesn’t provide a legal pathway to citizenship. The Homeland Security secretary may grant the designation if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangers.

Haiti is one of several countries that Trump has aggressively sought to strip of TPS protections as part of his administration’s wider, mass deportation effort.

In her written opinion, Reyes said the plaintiffs’ lawsuit was likely to prevail on its merits and that she found it “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem preordained her termination decision because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denounced the ruling as “lawless activism.”

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago,” she said in a statement. “It was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades. The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”

Many Haitians in Springfield were worried that if their TPS status were ended, the administration might surge immigration officers to the city to begin rounding them up. Hours before the stay was granted, though, McLaughlin said DHS did not “have any new operations to announce.”

Haiti’s TPS status was activated after the 2010 earthquake and was extended multiple times. The country has since been racked by gang violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition to Haitians, Noem has terminated protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.

“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die,” attorneys for Haitian TPS holders wrote in a court filing in December. “Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death.”

Faith leaders and Haitian community leaders pray at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield, Ohio, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, during an event in support of Haitian migrants fearing the end of their Temporary Protected Status in the U.S. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

They said the decision to end Haiti’s status was motivated by racial animus, and that Noem had failed to consider whether there was an ongoing armed conflict that would pose a “serious threat” to personal safety, as required by law.

DHS, though, contends that conditions in Haiti have improved. In a November announcement about the ending of TPS for Haitians, the government said there had been some positive developments for Haiti, including authorization of a new, multinational force to combat gangs. Noem determined allowing Haitians to remain in the U.S. was against the national interest, the notice said.

In a December court filing, administration attorneys said the plaintiffs’ claims of racial animus were based on statements “taken out of context, often from other speakers and from years ago, and without direct links to the Secretary’s determinations.”

“Rather, Secretary Noem provided reasoned, facially sufficient explanations for her determinations.” they argued.

But many Haitians, including Jerome Bazard, a member of the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, say it’s still not safe enough to return to Haiti.

“They can’t go to Haiti because it’s not safe. Without the TPS, they can’t work. And if they can’t work, they can eat, they can’t pay bills,” he said. “You’re killing the people.”

Associated Press reporters Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus contributed to this report.