The author may have confused Fahrenheit with Centigrade. Freezing on the Centigrade scale does come in at a convenient zero degrees. However, I do have to wonder at how much science the writer has, being unable to differentiate between these two scales - something any halfway bright high school sophmore ought to be able to do.
Looking for published papers or a curriculum vitae, all I came up with are her dozen or so titles for juvenile literature in science topics. I think she's just a reporter.
Hey, if NASA can confuse English and Metric measurements, surely a reporter can be excused for confusing Fahrenheit and Celsius! Journalists ain't the brightest bulbs in the pack, you know!