By Eishna Ranganathan
News Editor

In the recent week, North America has faced extremely cold winter weather. The national average was below 18 degrees, and has not been that low since Jan 1997. The United States was colder than Mars. As the temperature plunged, students around Neshaminy layered up and the school’s climate control provided an escape from the weather.

The temperatures were in single digits, and a person could throw boiling water out the window and it would turn to cloud. The morning temperature in Chicago on Jan. 7 was colder than the South Pole while the day before it had a record temperature of -16 degrees Fahrenheit. A town in Minnesota called Embarrass experienced -37 degrees. It often competes with neighboring towns to see who can uphold the record of being the coldest. Schools were closed for the first time in over 15 years due to temperature.

Even Florida, the Sunshine State, dropped in temperature, though not even near the northern states. Its temperature remained in the teens and lower twenties concerning the agricultural produces about their crop yields. In New York, Central Park reached four degrees, breaking a record since 1896, 118 years.

In the Bucks and Montgomery counties, the temperature has not been so low since 1994, the difference is that now the wind-chill factor makes it colder than reality. In the Langhorne area, the daily high was 13 degrees and low was 4 degrees.

Contrary to popular belief, the temperatures cannot be a justifiable argument against global warming. The weather does not serve as what the climate is. Climate is the patterns measure over decades of research. The only reason it is cold right now is due to the axis being tilted away from the Sun, making continents like Australia face it. It is supposed to have a 100 degree temperature in the upcoming week.

Looking at reports from 1970, the average winter night went up 5 degrees in the Mid-U.S. This is only a rare occurrence where the jet stream is bent downward, letting all of the cold air from the Arctic seep down and make its way to America.

Overall, the sudden cold in the Eastern region of North America is called the Polar Vortex.