DeRusha later returned to Twitter to apologise to those who'd tried it in insufficiently low temperatures. "Sorry that anyone got hurt! I look forward to the post on all the Minnesotans who did this safely!"
Let me back in!
Robert Vick was nearing the end of a six-year sentence for burglary and criminal possession of a forged document when he escaped from the minimum-security Blackburn Correctional Complex in Kentucky at the weekend.
Yet after spending the night a few kilometres away in an abandoned, unheated house, where his socks froze solid, on Tuesday Vick, 42, decided to turn himself in. He went to a nearby motel in Lexington, where he asked the manager to call the authorities. The shivering escapee was suffering from frostbite due to the -25C wind chill. Motel guests gave him hot chocolate as they waited for the local police.
Left conspiracy?
Naturally, the conservative right would not be convinced that the polar vortex had anything to do with climate change. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh even claimed that "the left" had dreamed up the phrase "polar vortex" simply so as to link the cold weather to "the global warming agenda".
The name "sounds like a crappy science fiction movie", Limbaugh said, accusing liberals of "perpetrating a hoax". Speaking on his popular syndicated show, Limbaugh said, "We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country. And right on schedule the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it's completely unprecedented. They've got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda, and they have. It's called the 'polar vortex'. The dreaded polar vortex.
LA continental
While the rest of the country suffered, Los Angeles remained under a blanket of smug this week. In Southern California, the weather warnings were about the possibility of bushfires due to the above-average temperatures.
On Tuesday in downtown LA, the temperature climbed to more than 25C, about 5C higher than normal for this time of year. On the beaches of Venice and Santa Monica, many were wearing swimsuits. Late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel sent a camera crew to interview some of the more scantily clad beachgoers - and then pelted them with snowballs.
Fire and ice
Over the weekend, a crew tackling a blaze in Minneapolis, Minnesota - where the temperature dropped below -20C - found their efforts had coated the smouldering house, not to mention the nearby trees and pavements, in a thick layer of ice.
Dumb luck
In another cold-weather trick gone awry, 12-year-old Maddie Gilmartin from New Hampshire stuck her tongue to a frozen metal flag-pole, a la Dumb and Dumber.
She was stuck for around 15 minutes until her parents noticed her flailing her arms and used warm water to set her free. Gilmartin was taken to the emergency room and told the swelling in her mouth could last up to six weeks.
Frozen assets
The widespread cold snap could cost the US economy around US$5 billion ($6 billion), according to Planalytics, a firm which tracks the weather's effect on businesses.
Road closures and cancelled flights left hundreds of thousands of commuters unable to travel while retailers and restaurants saw custom dip as people chose to stay at home rather than brave the chill.
Next month, businesses also fear a knock-on effect as people save their cents to pay for the bumper energy charges incurred this week. Not every business suffered, however: cold weather outfitters enjoyed a hot streak.
- Independent
