US weather to go nuts with blizzard, polar vortex, heat dome, atmospheric river all at once

Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be.

Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill.

This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed.

“All of the country, even if you’re not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states.

A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven't been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said.

Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: “Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual.”

It has already started in Los Angeles with unusual 90-degree March weather that had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post.

Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short.

“The back of my neck was melting,” he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere.

“I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I’ll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this,” he said.

Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex — a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole — is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue said

Minneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day “temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic,” Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s.

Two storm systems in a row — one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday — will chug along the country's northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said.

That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply — meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening — that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex.

Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning.

And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said.

It is “the time of year where we can see stuff like this,” Chenard said. “But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times.”

In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people in Oklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn't look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up “anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast” on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said.

Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said.

The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents.

“Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other,” Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, “grab access to that cold air reservoir up there" and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said.

Numerous studies have connected unusual jet stream and polar vortex activity to shrinking Arctic sea ice and human-caused climate change.

But there is hope.

“The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery,” Maue said.

Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda contributed from Los Angeles.

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A person walks through falling snow at the White House on Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

People cover themselves from the heat with umbrellas while waiting at a food distribution site Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Construction workers spray water during an unseasonably hot day at MacArthur Park on Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

The U.S. Capitol is seen during a snowy day on Capitol Hill Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

A pedestrian holds a cloud themed umbrella under a sunny day next to Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles Thursday, March. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

SHANGHAI (AP) — Formula 1 and its governing body FIA said the Grand Prix races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will not happen in April because of safety concerns related to the Iran war.

Both countries have been struck during Iran’s response after the United States and Israel launched a wave of attacks on Iran.

The announcement was made early Sunday morning in Shanghai ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

“Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East region, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix will not take place in April,” F1 said. “While several alternatives were considered, it was ultimately decided that no substitutions will be made in April.”

F1 was due to race in Bahrain on April 12 and in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on April 19.

“While this was a difficult decision to take, it is unfortunately the right one at this stage considering the current situation in the Middle East," said Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of F1.

The FIA said the two races “will not take place in April” and that no replacements would be organized.

“The FIA will always place the safety and well being of our community and colleagues first. After careful consideration, we have taken this decision with that responsibility firmly in mind,” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said.

The FIA didn’t explicitly rule out rescheduling the races and, along with F1, did not use the words "cancel" or "postpone" in announcing the series would not be in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia next month.

Ben Sulayem said: “Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are incredibly important to the ecosystem of our racing season, and I look forward to returning to both as soon as circumstances allow.”

The promoters of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia said they supported the decision.

F1’s packed schedule doesn’t have any obvious open dates for rescheduled races this year.

Calling off the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races means there will be a five-week gap from the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 and the next race, the Miami Grand Prix on May 3. Without any rescheduling, the 22-race schedule would be the shortest since 2023.

The two Middle East races weren’t until next month but F1 faced making a decision earlier because it typically flies in the first staff and cargo to tracks weeks in advance. F1 was also faced with the difficulty of selling tickets at short notice, which make it almost impossible to set up a replacement race in other countries.

Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver who qualified on pole position for Sunday’s race in Shanghai, said his thoughts were “with the ones that are suffering from this situation” and that safety needed to be the priority, adding of the FIA and F1: “I’m sure they will do the right thing.”

The schedule is a joint matter for the FIA and for F1’s commercial rights holder and teams had signaled a willingness to follow their lead.

“I think we follow the guidance of the FIA and Formula 1, as we always do. They’ve always led us in the right direction,” Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley said Friday. “Nobody’s going to compromise on anything that would put teams into an uncomfortable situation.”

Bahrain had already hosted two preseason F1 tests this season before Israel and the United States launched attacks on Iran. A smaller-scale test of wet-weather tires was called off in the immediate aftermath of those strikes.

A travel shutdown affecting major airports in the Middle East also caused disruption for Europe-based F1 and team staff heading to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The last time a scheduled F1 race was canceled was in 2023, when the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in northern Italy was called off at short notice due to deadly floods in the area.

In 2022, F1 continued with its race weekend in Saudi Arabia even after Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an oil depot during a practice session, with black smoke visible from the Jeddah circuit.

The same year, F1 canceled the Russian Grand Prix’s contract after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

This image released by Bahrain's Interior Ministry shows firefighters extinguishing flames after an Iranian projectile struck an industrial area in Ma'ameer, Bahrain, Monday, March 9, 2026. (Bahrain Interior Ministry via AP)

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain comes out of the pits during the Sprint Race of the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, in Shanghai, China, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain crosses the finish line and wins the Sprint Race of the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, in Shanghai, China, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)