I'm from northern Minnesota, not too far from Canada, and whenever I go home for Christmas, the temperature hits negative thirty degrees below (Fahrenheit). So, normally, whenever I hear people on the East Coast or West Coast complain that it's too cold, I roll my eyes. Especially in Los Angeles. (Come on, guys. Sixty degrees isn't cold.) However, since New Year's Eve, the East Coast has been struck with horribly cold weather, and even Minnesotans can't roll their eyes anymore. So much for a happy 2018! This is one of the coldest snaps the country has ever seen, and the effects are unbelievable. Niagara Falls looks stunning frozen, but the blizzards have wreaked havoc on the roads. Outside Buffalo, New York, one Twitter user recorded a video of a one hundred car pile-up. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/StephenMarth/status/948287949254389760]] In Baltimore, one man described the road conditions as "drivable but tricky." In the photos, vehicles are "caked in ice," like they were attacked by Elsa from Frozen. (How much would it suck to scrape this off?) [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/erick_ferris/status/948130285652193281]] The winter storms are also taking their toll on nature. People have shared photos of waves freezing in mid-place. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Basehunters/status/948318427499913217]] And if you think that's striking, look what happens when the Great Lakes freeze: The water turns into unusual formations called "ice balls." That's when ice sheets break apart, and the waves sculpt the chunks into rounder shapes. As one Twitter user described them, they are "superweird and beautiful." It kind of looks like a bunch of Twitter eggs. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/davidplotz/status/948314659077214210]] Unfortunately, it's not all glistening beauty. Some animals are just as unprepared for the inclement weather as humans. In Massachusetts, frozen thresher sharks have washed up on shore, too cold  for scientists to even dissect. And in Wyoming, several elk fell through the ice, with no hope of escape until some volunteers banded together. (Thankfully, the crew saved all thirteen of them.) [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ABC/status/947132139270701058]] According to The Weather Channel, half the country woke up to sub-zero temperatures. You know it's getting crazy when Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida are reporting colder weather than Alaska. (And I didn't think Florida could get any crazier.) [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/BroadcastingBri/status/948243184211111938]] But believe it or not, it's about to get worse. A monster of a winter storm called a 'bomb cyclone' is headed towards the East Coast. It might sound cool, but it's actually pretty scary. Every state from Maine to Florida - a 1,500 mile stretch - has severe weather alerts. Some parts of the Northeast will even be colder than Mars. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/948308728327168001]] But what is a 'bomb cyclone'? The Washington Post describes it as a kind of winter hurricane: [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/thepbg/status/948320587453272066]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/tomgvellner/status/948309081244274688]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/EpicNameBro/status/948320243222564866]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/LittleMissLizz/status/948321937910042624]] Anyway, if you live on the East Coast, stay safe and warm. I'll stick to rolling my eyes at everyone complaining about the sixty degree weather in Los Angeles. And while the storms might make travel impossible, who knows? You might find something fun to do in the cold, like make "snot-sicles." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/PamSmit81893423/status/947962847358803968]]

[caption id="attachment_4916" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @ElijahPorterMom[/caption] Extreme weather conditions have been the cause of quite a few scary news stories recently - the tragedy of the recent Australian bushfires, for instance. On the other side of the world, Canada is dealing with the exact opposite problem as Newfoundland and Labrador have been hit by the worst blizzard in half a century. But, while global warming is no laughing matter, the situation in Canada is slightly less devastating than the one in Australia. So, being a good-humored people, the Canadians have taken to the internet to share pictures of the ridiculous weather conditions they're having to put up with. A lot of them demonstrate that good humor in the face of such a bizarre situation, while others are spookily beautiful. So let's see if we can put the scarier, sadder side of global warming to the back of our minds for once and enjoy these photos that show the lighter side of it. [post_page_title]#1 Snowman[/post_page_title] Get used to pictures of massive snowbanks that have built up outside the door, by the way. There are a LOT of them. [caption id="attachment_4917" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @Mk2995[/caption] It's a bit of luck they had the exact props they needed to make this snowman already lying around the house because they wouldn't have been able to pop out for them. [post_page_title]#2 Fingerprints[/post_page_title] Another "snowbank outside my door" photo. A little less creative than the first, but still impressive. [caption id="attachment_4918" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @Jason_Sheppard_[/caption] I'm a big fan of the handprints on this one, which seems to suggest that somebody patted the snow ineffectually before realizing that wasn't going to do any good. [post_page_title]#3 Snowfall Meter[/post_page_title] It must be a terrible feeling to realize that, as the blizzard settles in, you've got nothing to do but sit back and watch it. Luckily, this person found a way to pass the time. [caption id="attachment_4919" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @BCbaydoll[/caption] Let's hope they didn't use a permanent marker, as it'd be a shame for your window to become a constant reminder of that boring morning you spent watching the snowfall. [post_page_title]#4 Blanketed House[/post_page_title] This house has been so perfectly blanketed that it looks like a blank, factory-reset model of a house that you'd buy before painting it whatever colors you wanted. [caption id="attachment_4920" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @kevinru70846539[/caption] There are no footsteps anywhere, so presumably, the person who took this photo didn't actually come FROM the house. I wonder if they knocked to check that everyone was ok? [post_page_title]#5 Dinosaur Attack[/post_page_title] As with the snowman, if you're stuck in your house, you've got to make your own fun with whatever you have to hand. Looks like these guys had a dinosaur head just lying around. [caption id="attachment_4921" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @videogirlprod[/caption] Either that or this is an actual photo of a real dinosaur attack happening in the middle of a blizzard. Let's hope for the former. [post_page_title]#6 Snow Canyon[/post_page_title] There are two possible explanations for this picture, as well. One is that a monumental clearing effort has gone into getting the snow off this road. [caption id="attachment_4922" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @artcgreen[/caption] The other is that there was some sort of giant snake or worm sleeping here when the snow fell, which has now slithered off. I know which explanation I prefer. [post_page_title]#7 Confused Dog[/post_page_title] This poor dog is probably used to this fence being considerably taller than it is here, and is struggling to work out why it now seems to be so much smaller than him. [caption id="attachment_4924" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @Laing90125[/caption] Poor guy must have very cold feet, as well. [post_page_title]#8 Romantic Snow Dinner[/post_page_title] A romantic dinner for two by candlelight surrounded by snow. The perfect date! Very romantic and atmospheric, and the perfect excuse for lots of cuddling if it gets too cold. [caption id="attachment_4925" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @musicschooldean[/caption] It would be tricky for the food to stay warm for very long, though, so I hope they eat quickly. [post_page_title]#9 One Headlamp Exposed[/post_page_title] It looks like this picture was taken after quite a lot of work with how deep the snowdrift is and how much seems to have been dug out of it. [caption id="attachment_4926" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @JodyJFoss[/caption] It must be particularly frustrating, then, to have only exposed one of the car's lights after all that effort. Back to work! [post_page_title]#10 Open Sunroof[/post_page_title] This guy accidentally left his sunroof open just before the blizzard hit, which has left him with a much larger clean-up job than everybody else. [caption id="attachment_4927" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @StephenGorman13[/caption] I hope he clears it out before it melts, or the upholstery is going to be ruined! [post_page_title]#11 Car Iceberg[/post_page_title] The sheer shard of snow pointing out on the right there is a scary thing. I'd be very wary of walking anywhere near it in case it all collapsed. [caption id="attachment_4928" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @HasanHaiNL[/caption] But I suppose the priority is digging the car out, so any potential avalanches can be dealt with later. [post_page_title]#12 Light At The End Of The Tunnel[/post_page_title] This one's pretty spooky. Whether that light is a car headlight, the moon, or something altogether more supernatural I don't know, but it makes for an atmospheric photo. [caption id="attachment_4929" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Imgur @GameOfThors[/caption] I guess if you saw this and heard mysterious voices calling for you to walk towards the light, then you'd know for sure that something weird was going on. I'll just hope it's a car headlight. [post_page_title]#13 Roadsign[/post_page_title] I like to imagine that this woman has walked past this roadsign every day cursing it for being taller than her, and hoping that one day she'll get to put it in its place. [caption id="attachment_4930" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @carriecomerfor1[/caption] After the blizzard, she finally gets her wish and can make that roadsign feel pretty silly for having been so tall all this time. [post_page_title]#14 A Perfectly Preserved Door[/post_page_title] Again, not quite as creative as our friend the snowman earlier on, but full marks for having preserved such a perfect impression of their front door in the snow. [caption id="attachment_4932" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Reddit @WillOfTheLand[/caption] Now if they ever wanted to clone their front door, they've got a perfect cast to base it off! [post_page_title]#15 Cold Dog[/post_page_title] I hope very much that this family dug a small hole and then encouraged their dog to sit in it for the photo. Because the alternative is that this dog got buried in snow and had to be dug out. [caption id="attachment_4916" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @ElijahPorterMom[/caption] He looks such an adorable guy that I wouldn't wish that fate on him so I sure hope this was just a cute photo opp. [post_page_title]#16 Tall Man[/post_page_title] As with the dog previously, it's hard to tell if this guy has dug a gap big enough for him to stand in, or if he was encased in snow, hands in the air, for hours and has only just been freed. [caption id="attachment_4933" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @Garthero[/caption] If it's the second, his arms must be very tired and I hope he gets the chance to go and relax somewhere. [post_page_title]#17 Windows[/post_page_title] All I can think about is how scared I'd be of the glass smashing and snow just pouring into my home. I hope they held out for long enough. [caption id="attachment_4934" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @ElijahPorterMom[/caption] I also think the plastic sheet they've got on the table is a little strange, but I guess there are more important things to worry about. [post_page_title]#18 Snow Arch[/post_page_title] Whether this happened naturally or has been dug out this way, I don't know, but it looks an awful lot of fun. I'd probably start off by daring friends to run underneath it without it collapsing on them. [caption id="attachment_4935" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @JCFPC[/caption] Then if that got too boring, I'd start daring people to climb up and walk across it. Might end in tears, though. [post_page_title]#19 Nature's Fridge[/post_page_title] Here we find someone who's really turning the blizzard to their own advantage by turning a snowdrift into a natural fridge. [caption id="attachment_4936" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @SouWesterSoul[/caption] There's still plenty of room for a few more bottles as well, or maybe to freeze some leftovers and have them again later in the week. [post_page_title]#20 Scared Dog[/post_page_title] I don't know if this dog has ever seen snow before, but whether he has or not, his body language seems to suggest that he doesn't trust it one little bit. [caption id="attachment_4937" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Imgur @GameOfThors[/caption] I hope he wasn't told that he has to go out into it and was allowed to spend the evening sitting around in his pyjamas if that's what he wanted. [post_page_title]#21 Car Trenches[/post_page_title] People seem to have put a lot of effort into digging trenches so they can get to their cars, though I don't know why. It doesn't look like they'll be able to get very far in them even when they have dug them out. [caption id="attachment_4938" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @BairdTom[/caption] But I guess on a snow day you've got to fill your time somehow, right? [post_page_title]#22 Digging Out The Door[/post_page_title] Not content to just take a photo of the snowbank that has built up outside his door, this guy has decided to take action and dig his way to freedom. [caption id="attachment_4940" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @barhaven[/caption] Unfortunately, it looks like his bath isn't quite big enough to hold it all, so maybe he'll have to wait a little longer. [post_page_title]#23 Snow Bales[/post_page_title] I can't believe that this little kid dug out all those snow bales! That pile is absolutely enormous! He must have had help from somebody. Or is this the hardest-working kid of all time? [caption id="attachment_4941" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @JoFennelly[/caption] Either way, good on him. He looks very proud of himself, and he should be, he's done a great job and also kept things very neat. [post_page_title]#24 Under The Bonnet[/post_page_title] After hours digging out trenches to get to your car, it must be very frustrating to realize that you can't go anywhere in it yet until you've also dug out all the snow inside the thing. [caption id="attachment_4942" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @Chantel76576879[/caption] I also don't know enough about cars to know which bit you should focus on digging out first. Maybe calling the AA out was the best thing to do all along. [post_page_title]#25 Door Selfie[/post_page_title] This guy is so impressed with the snowbank outside his door that he's decided to take a photo of himself next to it, looking very proud indeed. [caption id="attachment_4943" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @art_colored[/caption] Does anybody want to tell him that there are about seven other pictures of doors like this in this article alone? I don't have the heart. [post_page_title]#26 Car Stepping Stones[/post_page_title] I wonder if you could leap from one car rooftop to the other without any run-up? It looks pretty far, but I reckon a proper athlete could do it. [caption id="attachment_4944" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Credit - Twitter @UntamedBeauti[/caption] Yeah, it might not be the most entertaining game ever, but like I said, you've got to create your own fun in a blizzard. [post_page_title]#27 Trenches Again[/post_page_title] People digging out trenches in order to get at their cars again, this time taken from an angle that makes it look like a game of Tetris or Frogger or something. [caption id="attachment_4945" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Twitter @PeterCBC[/caption] I do feel bad for these guys and all the trouble they're having to go to in order to dig for freedom, but all this picture's done is make me want to play an old-fashioned computer game. [post_page_title]#28 One More Door[/post_page_title] And, yes, we've seen a lot of these now, but they're the bread-and-butter of this story, so let's have one last picture of a big snowdrift that's built up outside a door. [caption id="attachment_4946" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Credit - Imgur @GameOfThor[/caption] Think I've seen enough of those pictures to get me through all of 2020, now.

A polar vortex brought chaos to the United States earlier this year, with parts of the country dropping to below-freezing temperatures. Temperatures dropped as low as -40C in some areas, with some states even becoming colder than Antarctica.

In Chicago, the temperature reached -30C during the peak of the cold front, and locals were warned not to breathe deeply when outside. By late January, over 56 per cent of Lake Michigan was completely frozen over - leading many social media users to share their stunning photos of the lake.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/DavidPFunk/status/1090665373458944000]]

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/TinaRJensen/status/1090365637719982083]]

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In some instances, steam fog was spotted rising from the lake. This phenomenon comes from when the water temperature is higher than the air temperature, causing what is referred to as a 'boiling cauldron' effect.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/WhoaInteresting/status/1090705555411427328]]

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Now, there is yet another strange phenomenon that has emerged from Lake Michigan as a result of the cold weather. Now that we're entering Spring, ice shards are beginning to pile up on top of one another.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1108472445588119552]]

These ice shelves were formed during the winter as hills formed, from waves crashing over existing ice piles. The recent thawing has resulted in sheets of ice breaking, leading to shards of ice being pushed to the surface.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1108448277131939840]]

Initially reported by MLive.com (where you can see even more images), there have been some stunning photos taken of this new phenomenon, which is visible along South Haven's pier.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1108463638682238979]]

The US Coast Guard has warned that this sight should only be viewed from far away, as it is still dangerous to stand on the unstable ice.

“No ice is safe ice especially this time of year,” Grant Heffner told MLive.com. “The ice is certainly deteriorating and breaking up."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/adrianmcmurray/status/1108604920427479040]]

Hopefully we get even more beautiful photos before the lake completely thaws!

North America is pretty cold right now. Like, really, really cold. It's one of the biggest cold snaps the continent has ever been blasted with, and some pretty freaky sh*t is going down. Frozen sharks are being washed ashore, windows are breaking and electricity poles are snapping. The antifreeze stuff you put in your car is actually freezing for some people, and you can stop making those frostbite jokes now because you might actually get it if you're out for too long. But it's also pretty cool – if you'll pardon the pun – and not just because you can make snow angels or hurl large rocks at frozen ponds to see if you can crack them. Take the Niagara Falls, for example. The huge waterfall that sits on the Canadian side of the border next to the US is a stupidly beautiful winter wonderland right now. Thanks to temperatures staying well below freezing point every day of late, the park is covered in ice and snow and tourists visiting the Falls have been confronted by a massive, icy thing that looks out of this world. Temperatures are hovering between -7 and -16 degrees Celsius, and on Friday the mercury is only expected to wobble between the -17 and -21 marks. And with windchill, things can feel much, much colder. Holy smokes. But it seems to be worth it for the view. The breathtaking winterscape at the Falls is all white, with snow blanketing the ground and sitting atop the trees doubled over with heavy globs of ice on their branches. There are seriously dramatic icicles everywhere and frost licking every surface to make it appear as if everything is glittering and glowing in the winter sun. But I'll just go ahead and show the damn pictures now and cease my poetic ramblings about the beauty of winter. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdNaPUXBqul/]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdNVd6fAMRS/]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYE8qZh0hr/]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/BNphotographers/status/947448360222576640]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYLOaqjxqa/?taken-at=215301181]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYH9WDjOIh/]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/SharonCantillon/status/947477767897182209]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdY34ehjRlk/?taken-at=215301181]] [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdZ77oOnneR/?taken-at=215301181]] *Wipes tear* Despite the fact that it's so cold, the water still descends at its usual rapid pace into the river below it. More than 3,000 tons of water crash over the iconic shelf of the Niagara Falls every second, "It would take a lot more than a few days of cold weather to completely shut that off," The Washington Post’s Caitlin Dewey says. And while ~some~ pea-brained people think that this sordidly cold weather proves that global warming is completely bogus, scientists, data, ice caps that are literally melting, and most of the educated population of the world will remind you that climate and weather are not the same things and that global warming is actually part of the reason you're freezing your extremities off. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/MikeFalzone/status/946727690006093824]] But judging by the images, I still think it'd be worth braving the sub-zero temperatures to get a glimpse of the Niagara Falls in all its wintery glory. And while some people (like me) may think it looks like something straight out of Frozen, others are convinced it's more similar to Game of Thrones and somewhere beyond the Wall. Well, each to their own, you can't deny it's jaw-dropping either way.

New York has just suffered one of the coldest winters on record. With schools closed, ferries frozen in ice and the lowest temperatures at the ball drop in 55 years, the city was in the midst of a deep freeze. However, January started with a record-breaking blizzard - further cementing this winter as one of the most ruthless in America’s history. So as the Big Apple thaws, should we not be asking ourselves some serious questions about global warming? As it happens, there are other areas which appear to be bucking the trend. While an emotive video of a starving polar bear was used to spread awareness of the melting polar ice caps, at the other pole, Antarctic sea ice has not only stayed strong but actually increased. “The oceans around Antarctica - if you look at temperature trends over the last 50 years - that’s the one place that hasn’t been showing a lot of warming,” explains University of Washington Professor of Oceanography Kyle Armour. “It’s actually shown a little bit of cooling in the last 30 years.” Furthermore, with frozen sharks washing up on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and climate change scripture as prominent as Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth found to contain errors, it seems that environmentalists have some questions to answer. The phrase “bomb cyclone” has been used in the media to try to explain the freezing conditions which hit New England over the festive period. “Bombogenesis is the technical term. Bomb cyclone is a shortened version of it, better for social media,” stated Weather.US meteorologist Ryan Maue. “There's nothing exploding or detonating,” he assured. [[heroimage||http://cdn.junglecreations.com/wp/junglecms/2018/01/GettyImages-580749227-compressor.jpg||A woman trudges through the snow in New York]] Storms are measured by central pressure - the lower the central pressure, the stronger the storm. A bomb cyclone is a storm where the central pressure has dropped by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. The bomb cyclone which hit New England was especially bad because it drew cold air from our old friend, the polar vortex. Effectively an arctic cyclone, NASA defines the polar vortex as “a whirling and persistent large area of low pressure, found typically over both North and South poles”. However, the polar vortex isn’t getting stronger. It’s actually getting weaker - and it’s this which is causing colder winters. “In winter, the freezing Arctic air is normally ‘locked’ by strong circumpolar winds several tens of kilometers high in the atmosphere, known as the stratospheric polar vortex, so that the cold air is confined near the pole,” stated Marlene Kretschmer, co-author of a study published in the journal Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. “We found that there’s a shift towards more persistent weak states of the polar vortex. This allows frigid air to break out of the Arctic...” More importantly, some scientists - including those behind this recent study - believe that global warming is to blame. As the Arctic ice melts, the ocean absorbs more heat, which is then released into the atmosphere. This, along with other Arctic feedback loops, is known as “Arctic Amplification”. "Several types of weather extremes are on the rise with climate change," the researchers add, "and our study adds evidence that this can also include cold spells, which is an unpleasant surprise for these regions." As can be seen below, these regions suffering an "unpleasant surprise" in December were Canada and the US. They were the most usually cold countries in the world on 28 December. Furthermore, the cooling temperatures in the Antarctic are caused by surface waters being pushed north by gale-force westerly winds. This water is then replaced with water from the depths of the ocean which hasn’t seen daylight since before the Industrial Revolution. It is - understandably - very cold. It’s certainly true that a number of countries are seeing colder winters, but this is a consequence of the destabilisation of complex weather systems. It could be said that “global warming” is a misleading phrase but regardless of the terminology, climate change is real. However, the power to create change is in our hands. This month, for instance, we heard news that the ozone layer is recovering. After decades of damage caused by CFCs and other gasses, our change in behaviour has created a distinct, positive effect. In the post-truth age we’re living in, climate change denial is becoming worryingly prevalent. However, the overwhelming majority of the scientific community agrees this is a manmade problem. It is not a linear, straightforward issue but a gradual yet pervasive problem which humankind needs to address.