When Tracie Klossner opened up her utility bill this month, she walked over to her thermostat and turned the temperature down a few degrees.
A resident of the Rochester, New York, area, Klossner is no stranger to harsh winters. But a stretch of consecutive days of temperatures that hardly cracked the 20s and dipped to below zero was longer than Klossner, 54, is used to. It shows in her bill for the month ending on Feb. 2, which clocked in at over $720 for her 2,600-square-foot single-family home.
“I was just utterly speechless,” said Klossner, a purchasing manager for a small manufacturing company.
As millions of Americans reel from what forecasters said was the coldest invasion of arctic air of the winter season, now comes the sticker shock of utility bills after heat ran nearly nonstop to combat the freeze, although experts say the causes of those big bills are often more complex than just cold weather.
Multiple rounds of frigid air spread through much of the eastern half of the country in recent weeks. A fierce and deadly winter storm brought snow, ice and cold the weekend of Jan. 24 across the Midwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Then, the weekend of Feb. 7, the coldest winter blast yet plunged temperatures in the Northeast to the single digits or below zero, with wind chills recorded as low as minus 30 degrees because of extreme gusts.
The prolonged below-freezing temperatures prevented the snowpack from melting, which reflected sunlight and limited natural warming. That kept the air colder and the energy demand higher, AccuWeather reported.
“Furnaces and heat pumps have been running nearly nonstop to keep homes, apartments and businesses warm amid this bitter cold,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said. “This relentless cold has compounded the affordability challenges many people have been struggling with this winter.”
Frigid temperatures increased demand on heating systems
The average heating demand in regions that dealt with the cold blasts was estimated at 115% to 150% above normal, according to an analysis by AccuWeather. Heating costs can vary widely depending on the type of heating source and location. Electricity is the most expensive heating source this winter, AccuWeather reported.
More than half of Americans are likely to see high heat costs because of the cold, Porter said.
Thirty percent to 40% of homes in New England rely on home heating oil, which involves filling up a tank that can last awhile. The sticker shock may not be as high for those homes, because they would have filled up before the season began, AccuWeather reported.
Electricity bills during the roughly 25-day cold spell were expected to run hundreds of dollars above normal for some households, Porter said.
“America has not experienced a winter with this many dangerous impacts and costly disruptions since 2021,” Porter said.
Klossner uses a mix of electric and gas to heat her home, with a furnace that runs on electric, and a water tank and stove that run on natural gas. Her $724.28 bill in February was for both, billed by the same utility company, and is about $100 more than her bill from the same time last year, and up over $300 from her bill in 2023.
Klossner usually keeps her thermostat set to 71 degrees, but after seeing her bill this month, she said she’s trying out 68 degrees.
“There is nothing in my budget that accounts for a $750 electric bill,” Klossner said, adding that she doesn’t know how lower-income families will possibly afford bills like these.
Utility bills were already on the rise
The extreme cold settled in as Americans in many parts of the country were already expected to see higher utility costs, according to policy and advocacy groups. Household utility costs spiked 41% from 2020 to 2025, according to a September analysis by J.D. Power, based on prices for electricity, gas and water in the second quarter of each year.
For this winter, home heating costs are expected to jump about 9.2%, according to the policy organization the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Electric heating costs are expected to rise 12.2%, and natural gas costs are expected to rise 8.4%, the group said.
“On average, households are expected to spend $995 on heating this winter, an increase of $84 from last year,” an NEADA report released in January said.
The rising costs are the result of a combination of factors, the report said, including high interest rates increasing the cost of financing power plants, rising natural gas costs, a higher demand for electricity in part due to data centers, aging infrastructure and reduced federal incentives for renewable energy.
According to analysis by the group PowerLines, electric and gas utility companies requested nearly $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, more than double what they requested in 2024.
Klossner said she has been seeing steady increases in her bills in recent years. She’s perplexed by the costs but feels she has little recourse as a homeowner with no control over the rising prices and dependent on her utilities.
“The feeling of helplessness and anger are the two things that I’m being left with.”
Contributing: Daniel de Visé
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Your heating bills may leave you ‘speechless’ after arctic blast
Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
