Hi! January seems to be flying by quick, but instead of painfully cheesing you out with a small talk, let’s take a different route now shall we:

A British Cheese Board study found that certain cheeses, especially blue varieties, can trigger extremely vivid dreams and nightmares. Participants reported surreal visions ranging from talking animals to celebrity encounters.
Pule cheese, made from Balkan donkey milk, sells for over $1,300 per pound. It takes roughly 25 liters of milk to produce a single kilogram, making it rarer than many precious metals.

Those were some ‘cheese for thought’ facts for you, on the special occasion of National Cheese Lovers Day. So, don’t shy away from snacking on a cheese pizza today and let’s get started with our data stories right away!

Today’s special:

Weather Nukes & Flight Delays: Data reveals how weather disruptions are more or less reshaping the flight business in America.
My Middle Name Is Oil: Why does America seem to have such an unusual appetite for oil?
Does Your Job Come With AI Immunity: A list of jobs that are more or less immune or exposed to the AI automation purge.

Weather Or Not?

The American flight network is showing signs of strain under the weight of weather-related disruptions. A winter storm was responsible for the U.S. airlines to cancel a total of 1,802 flights and 22,349 delayed as the snowy temperatures encompassed the nation creating hazardous conditions for travel during peak holiday season last year. This surge forced carriers to issue travel advisories and left thousands of passengers looking for an alternative. The weather is no longer just a temporary hindrance, it’s emerging as the dominant cause of cancellations. According to BTS data shared, the weather accounted for 73.5 % of all flight cancellations in the first half of 2025, totaling 43,785 flights grounded by storms, winds, and conditions severe enough to make flying unsafe.

Meanwhile, disruption rates are wildly varied across the U.S. Nearly 1 in 4 flights nationwide is delayed or canceled, with the worst states being West Virginia, Virginia, Kansas, clocking up to 27.3% and 23.8% of flights affected respectively. Travelers in New Jersey face some of the steepest costs when delays strike, with average claims near $751 per incident, far above the national average.

Skies Aren’t Playing Nice

At the airport level, the weather toll is quantifiable and staggering. According to Visual Capitalist’s ranking, major U.S. airports collectively accounted for millions of weather-related minutes of delay in recent years, with Atlanta (ATL) and Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) among the top in total delays each recording weather-related delay figures in the hundreds of thousands of minutes annually. Seasonality matters too: Weather Underground’s analysis of the most weather-delayed airports shows a sharp contrast across major U.S. hubs with airports like Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD), each nearing 75,055 and 254,239 delays annually, driven by everything from thunderstorms to snowstorms, wind shear, and heat extremes.

Carrier performance also reflects weather-induced disruption. Men’s Journal’s study revealed that American Airlines canceled the most flights this year, with tens of thousands of cancellations attributed to weather and related operational knock-on effects surpassing other major U.S. carriers in sheer numbers of canceled schedules. Adding to this, Squaremouth’s seasonal breakdown shows that summer months (June–August) have a combined flight disruption rate of 27.8% (delays plus cancellations), compared with 21.4% in spring and 14.8% in fall, underscoring that weather-related impact spans heat waves and thunderstorms just as much as winter storms.

Oil-Rich Diet

America’s relationship with oil is quite paradoxical to say the least. It pumps more crude at a rate at which all other countries pale in comparison to it, yet persistently imports heavy volumes and massive amounts of exports abroad. In 2024 the U.S. consumed about 19 million barrels per day, accounting for nearly 18.7% of the world total, a share bigger than the numbers of the next two biggest consumers, China and India. Concurrently, the U.S. remains positioned as a powerhouse of global production. Domestic output climbed to a groundbreaking level, with production averaging around 13.4 million barrels per day as per the recent reports by AFPM communications. This domestic boom has restructured global oil flows, from a net importer to a net exporter of petroleum products but it hasn’t eliminated imports altogether.

A big part of the appetite comes down to refinery reality: U.S. refineries are tailored to handle a mix of light and heavy crude. Even though most U.S. oil is light, refineries need heavier grades that American shale doesn’t provide efficiently, which is why imports still matter. At the same time, U.S. oil consumption averaged 20.59 million barrels per day in 2025 the highest in 18 years sustained by high per-capita use, car-dependent suburbia, and policy support for larger, fuel-intensive vehicles.

Gas For Me & Gas For Thee

Despite record production, imports continue to persist simultaneously. A major portion of U.S. crude oil imports, an estimate of 61.7% came from Canada, with Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other producers filling out the rest of the mix. Canada alone delivered around 4,072 thousand barrels per day while Mexico accounted for 7.1% of crude oil imports. While on the other hand, petroleum imports from other countries also play a pivotal role: South Korea accounted for 8% of total U.S. petroleum imports worth $4.71 billion, while the Netherlands supplied 7.2% valued at $4.23 billion, even as overall petroleum imports totaled $58.71 billion in 2024 and $11.90 billion in early 2025. This highlights America’s deep integration into global oil markets and the value of diversified crude sources. Yet the exports side is equally striking: in 2024 the U.S. shipped 3.9 billion barrels of oil to 146 countries, representing 55% of its domestic production.

Meanwhile, EIA data accentuates how import dependence is mainly shaped and defined by geography and refinery requirements. In 2024, Canada accounted for 55% of all U.S. crude oil and petroleum product imports as opposed to OPEC countries and the rest of the world which stood at 15% and 30% respectively. Taken together, total petroleum imports from OPEC and non-OPEC countries stood at approximately 3.07 billion barrels in 2024. This shift reinforces structural reliance despite rising domestic output.

The AI-Automation Purge

The AI sweep down of the workplace isn’t slowing down, but not every job is on the elimination list. According to Microsoft’s recent report, jobs are divided between those that are vulnerable to algorithms and the other anchored by human skills that machines can’t easily imitate. 40 jobs stand clear from the firing line, largely because these require human touch, contextual judgement and dexterity that language models cannot force their way through. The pattern is consistent in the Forbes ranking of AI-resistant careers. Lawyers sit at the top with a 100% AI-resistant ranking with only a slim 29% chance of automation. Medical and health services managers are close behind at 93% and HR managers trail after at 87% where empathy is effectively the integral job requirement. Even creative workers show strong resistance at 72.5% but carry a considerable 48% automation risk.

Good Defense > Best Offence

Several defensive traits that emerge from AI’s failure, such as granular decision, emotional nuance and physicality, seem to be the main factors. However, there are some underlying risks buried beneath the data. For instance, First-line administrative supervisors function on 81.6% human interaction yet run an automation risk of 50% a glaring reminder that high interpersonal demands don’t come with guaranteed safety. Compliance officers are next in line with a 72% human interaction requirement, but again a 50% risk. Even technical leadership isn’t exempt. Architectural and engineering managers require 47.1% human engagement, yet it stands in the face of a 25% chance of automation, showing that even strategic oversight does not come with certainty. The baseline is clear, but the caveat is baked in; safe doesn’t imply static. Workers in resilient sectors will need to double down on specific human edges like creativity, judgment, and adaptability at risk of AI automation, while physical skill may provide a moat, it’s not permanent.

Observe, Adapt & Improvise

The narrative of safety around AI-proof jobs starts to flicker when the data comes into focus. Studies show that an increase in AI adoption leads to a 2.3 percentage point wage increment, implying that the initial phase enhances productivity rather than making workers obsolete outright at the get-go. However, in the long run, the jobs that are most exposed are likely first to leave their occupations. This signals churn and not immediate displacement as the first structural shift.