Free Republic

This week’s cold snap across the U.S. will be one of “the most impressive Arctic outbreaks of this century,” one climate scientist says. After months of record-breaking warm temperatures, much of the U.S. is facing a harsh, fast-approaching blast of frigid air from the Arctic that could plunge wind chill factors below zero degrees Fahrenheit (–18 degrees Celsius)—all close on the heels of a serious winter storm dumping snow over the Midwest and Great Lakes this weekend. “It will be a very impressive—certainly one of the most impressive Arctic outbreaks of this century anyway,” says Judah Cohen, a climate scientist...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Feeling chilly? Here's cold comfort: You could be in East Antarctica which new data says set a record for "soul-crushing" cold. Try 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero; that's 93.2 degrees below zero Celsius, which sounds only slightly toastier. Better yet, don't try it. That's so cold scientists say it hurts to breathe.

Back when Gustav Marx was jumping into icy Lake Michigan, newspaper articles called him and his friends polar bears, but in lowercase letters. That was 1916, several years before the Polar Bear Club of Milwaukee would be established enough to merit capital letters. Marx's grandson, Steve Lister, recently came into possession of a photo album that his grandfather had titled: "Pictures of winter swimming, season 1916-17 at McKinley Beach." It's evidence that people of that era were perfectly capable of putting good sense aside and plunging into numbing water as a lark.The men are wearing shoes, even now a wise...

Whoa! In Ohio this morning...The wind chill temp is below zero....Brrr! Not even the last week of December yet. At least there's no real accumulatiaccumulation where i'm at...Glad i've got some packets of hot cocoa stashed with my Hot Pot.