Greetings from Ice Planet Hoth.
Indeed, much of the eastern United States resembles the fictional frozen Star Wars world, and now folks there are now enduring some of the worst cold on Earth: "The eastern United States is forecast to be the coldest place, relative to average, on the planet over the next 10 days," said Washington Post meteorologist Ben Noll on X on Jan. 27.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said that "overall, it is exceedingly rare to get this combination of length and magnitude of arctic airmass for this area, and it should be taken seriously for those who have to venture out in the cold for extended periods of time."
Interestingly, "some of the cold is coming from Siberia and that is contributing to the extremity of the cold since Siberia is the source of the coldest air of the Northern Hemisphere in winter," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist Judah Cohen in an email to USA TODAY.
Record-challenging cold is gripping the Midwest and Northeast this week, bringing the coldest winter in eight years to cities such as Detroit, New York and Boston, AccuWeather said.
