Featured Map: The map featured is interactive. The regions highlighted are where pictures of winter weather have been taken, and when you click on the markers you can see the picture. Enjoy!

All across North America an unusual cold front has taken its hold. Record-breaking temperatures and winter precipitation have alarmed many leaving two questions: where is this coming from and how do I prepare?

The cause of this record breaking weather is a circulation of strong, upper-level winds called a polar vortex. CNN International senior meteorologist Brandon Miller said in an article on CNN “…these winds tend to keep the bitter cold air locked in the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and it is not a single storm. On occasion, this vortex can become distorted and dip much farther south than you would normally find it, allowing cold air to spill southward.”

“The coldest weather in years will be making its presence known from the Upper Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic region for the beginning of the work week,” said the US National Weather Service on Monday. The states forecasted to get the winter storm included Ohio, South Dakota, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Most of the North Eastern United States and Canada have also been affected by the vortex’s storm with heavy snowfall and ice causing school closings and flight cancelations in major airports.

Here in the South, the arctic blast swept subzero lows as far south as Alabama and plunged much of the South into the single digits.  We at Graves County High School have seen our fair share of school closings and icy roads due to this polar vortex.

Yes, it’s cold, and yes it’s winter, but this is different. The low temperatures and wind make for a dangerous chance of getting frostbite or hypothermia. “Exposed flesh can freeze in as little as five minutes with wind chills colder than 50 below,” the National Weather Service’s Twin Cities office in Minnesota said. Make sure to keep bundled up when outdoors and do your best to stay dry when traveling through snow/ice.

The good news about this cold chill is that the most of it seems to be over.

The forecast this weekend is looking much better with temperatures rising as high as 55 degrees this weekend with mostly sunny skies.