The 2018–19 North American winter was unusually cold within the northern portions of the United States, with frigid temperatures being recorded within the middle of the season. Several notable events occurred, such as a rare in December, a strong cold wave and several major winter storms in the Midwest, and upper Northeast and much of Canada in late January and early February, record snowstorms in the Southwest in late February, deadly tornado outbreaks in the Southeast and a historic mid-April blizzard in the Midwest, but the most notable event of the winter was a record-breaking bomb cyclone that affected much of the central U.S. and Canada in mid March. Unlike previous winters, a developing weak El Niño was expected to influence weather patterns across North America. Overall, however,